Mills Fires 2 Ministers

Posted: Daily Guide | Wednesday, 16 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
In what looks like another musical chairs ministerial reshuffle, President John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills has reshuffled his Deputy Ministers, swapping some of them while bringing on a few fresh limbs.

He also dropped two and rewarded a man who just last Friday floated an organisation to champion support for his re-election, Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi.

Key among those affected by yesterday’s reshuffle are Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Mohammed Ahmed Baba Jamal, the man who proclaimed Jihad during the Akwatia by-election, replacing James Agyenim-Boateng as one of the two Deputy Ministers of Information.

This was contained in press release signed by Secretary to the President, J.K. Bebaako-Mensah, sent to the media yesterday.

It is not too clear why Baba Jamal is being brought to a delicate ministry as Information considering his intemperate nature; but some believe that he was being sent there to do the government’s hatchet job which Agyenim-Boateng, who heads for the Tourism Ministry as Deputy Minister, could not do.

Just a week ago, Baba Jamal, who had hints of his possible dismissal from government, rallied Eastern Regional Youth Organisers of the NDC to drum up support for him in order for the President to maintain him.

They appeared to have succeeded, but it is not clear if he can get on well with the people at the Ministry, especially Stan Dogbe, the de facto Minister at the Information Ministry.

Mr Agyenim-Boateng, a final year student at the Ghana School of Law, is replacing Kobby Acheampong, a man noted for making unfounded allegations, who is taking over from newly appointed Eastern Regional Minister, Dr. Kwasi Akyem Apea-Kubi as Deputy Interior Minister.

Former Presidential Spokesman, Mahama Ayariga, who was made Deputy Trade Minister not too long ago, swaps positions with Dr J.S Annan, Deputy Minister of Education, who has been accused by the President of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Anthony Abotsi-Afriyie, of meddling in typical student affairs.

President Mills however decided to bring in some fresh limbs to justify his claim of 2012 being an ‘action year’, with the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mfantsiman West, Aquinas Tawiah Quansah heading for the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development as an additional Deputy.

He joins Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah as Deputy Minister whilst Member of Parliament for Trobu-Amasaman, Ernest Attuquaye Armah, has also been appointed Deputy Minister of Communication and set to go and face the Appointments Committee of Parliament for vetting anytime soon, like his colleague Aquinas Quansah.

The President however decided to relieve two persons, Gideon Quarcoo and Betty Bosomtwe-Sam, of their jobs as Deputies for Communication and Western Region respectively.

Though the statement did not state explicitly, Deputy Information Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa confirmed to DAILY GUIDE that the President has shown them the exit, but did not say why, since it is subject to the President’s personal discretion.

Typical of a job-for-the-boys scenario, the President also decided to reward Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi, a Biochemistry lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and failed NDC Parliamentary candidate for Oforikrom constituency in the 2008 elections, who recently formed the ‘Get Atta Mills Elected’ group.

He has been given a juicy appointment as Deputy Eastern Regional Minister to replace Baba Jamal, whilst District Chief Executive (DCE) for Shama, Emelia Arthur, has been appointed Deputy Western Regional Minister, replacing Betty Bosomtwi-Sam, a victim of foot-soldiers’ agitation. She was accused of having poor human relations with foot-soldiers.

President Mills also made the following appointments of District Chief Executives (DCEs)- Apraku Lartey, Tano North; and Atta Bosompem, Asunafo South, both in the Brong Ahafo Region.

In the Ashanti Region, he appointed Solomon Agyei-Mensah and Samuel Asiamah DCEs for the Sekyere East and Sekyere Afram Plains respectively, whilst Reginald Asamoah Osae takes the position of DCE for Kwaebibirim District Assembly in the Eastern Region.

Drama In Court Over Lawyers’ Licence

Posted: Daily Guide | Wednesday, 16 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
DRAMA UNFOLDED in court last Friday when the judge presiding over the case in which POS Foundation has sued Fan Milk Company for selling expired products to unsuspecting members of the public raised issues about the operational licence of solicitors of the ice-cream manufacturing company.

Fan Milk was seeking to set aside the writ of summons of POS Foundation and its Chief Executive, Jonathan Osei Owusu, on the grounds that the plaintiff, a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), and its Chief Executive, a human rights activist, had failed to sign the statement of claim attached to the writ of summons.

This followed a suit filed by Mr. Owusu against the company and the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) after being hospitalized for consuming supposed expired yoghurt, one of the numerous products of the company.

Justice Utter Peter Dery of the Human Rights Court questioned the credibility of the licence of solicitors of Fan Milk, Messrs Quist, Brown, Wontumi and Associates, represented by Yaw Adjei Affram with registration number 03115, quoted on the statement of conditional appearance signed by S. K. Amoah.

This, according to the judge, was because the solicitors' licence expired on January 13 while the letter was written on January 20.

He therefore ordered the solicitors to immediately renew their licence to continue with the case.

Justice Dery therefore dismissed Fan Milk’s motion, saying “this application is thrown overboard since the first defendant, Fan Milk Limited, cannot stand on this minor error to seek the court to dismiss the case."

Mr. Affram said the failure to sign the statement of claim rendered the summons void since every writ of summons should be accompanied by a statement of claim duly signed.

Mr. Affram said "In the absence of a signed statement of claim, the writ of summons cannot stand."

But counsel for Pos Foundation and Jonathan Osei Owusu, Denis Ofosuappeah and Isaac Aidoo of Ahmed and Co., contended that the statement of claim which was not signed could be corrected within a matter of seconds so that the case could be speedily heard and disposed of instead of dragging it to waste the court's time.

POS Foundation and Jonathan Osei Owusu are seeking the court’s order to get Fan Milk Company to put an expiry date on Fanyogo, one of its products, and make it legible while stopping the sale of its products carried by vendors in the hot sun.

The plaintiff is also asking the court to order the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) which is the second defendant to ensure that Fan Milk fixes legible expiry dates on the products and institutes an effective monitoring mechanism to ensure public interest and safety.

It wants the court to order Fan Milk to immediately recall all Fanyogo products on the market until the expiry dates are fixed on the products and an injunction on the production of Fanyogo until they have met all the conditions of legible expiry date and recall of the products on the market.

Furthermore, Pos Foundation is seeking an extensive health care in favour of Mr. Osei Owusu as well as general damages and cost.

Clash Over ‘All Die Be Die’

Posted: Daily Guide |Tuesday, 15 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The famous ‘all die be die’ comment by the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) refuses to die a natural death, as it continues to generate heat in political circles.

The latest of these is the clash between a leading member of the NPP, who is aspiring to become the party’s parliamentary candidate in the Ablekuma South constituency, Ursula Owusu, and Presidential Aide, Stanislav Xoese Dogbe.

Ursula appeared on Metro TV’s ‘Good Morning Ghana’ show wearing a branded T-shirt with the bold inscription ‘ALL DIE BE DIE,’ incurring the anger of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).

This follows calls by NDC for the NPP presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to apologise for comments he made at a meeting with party faithful at Koforidua in the Eastern region, urging them to be bold--a comment which he repeated in several other meetings in the Greater Accra. Nana Addo is now in the Upper East region, and he is expected to repeat the same message.

The wearing of the T-shirt by Ursula seemed to have provoked Stan Dogbe, a man who until recently did not have his name in the official list of presidential appointees sent to Parliament. According to him, Ursula who happens to be the vice president of the Federation of International Women Lawyers (FIDA), was only trying to court what he described as cheap popularity for herself to lobby for a ministerial appointment should Nana Addo become President after the 2012 elections.

Stan Dogbe of the infamous ‘Dogbegate’ scandal told Accra-based Citi FM why Ursula Owusu should be wearing a T’ Shirt with that inscription.

“As for Ursula, she thinks that being boisterous and overly supportive of whatever Nana Addo says whether good or bad is what would give her the popularity that she requires to win her parliamentary seat or get her a ministerial appointment in Nana Addo’s government. I am sorry Nana is nowhere near the Presidency in 2012 or 2016 and she ought to realize that this country would have to remain stable before they come back to power,” he charged.

But Ursula dismissed Stan’s criticisms insisting that there was nothing wrong with the T-shirt she displayed on the programme, indicating that she wore the dress in response to the NPP presidential candidate’s call for party members to be bold and defend their right in the 2012 elections, since the NPP would not succumb to the intimidations of the NDC government.

She therefore accused Stan of rather being the person who was scheming to win cheap popularity and recognition in the Mills administration.

The NPP stalwart thus urged Stan to show some element of respect to Nana Addo who fought against the brute dictatorship of the AFRC and PNDC of former President Rawlings.

We’re ready for NDC

Adding his voice, Boakye Agyarko, Campaign Manager for Nana Akufo-Addo said the NPP was more than ready to meet the NDC boot-for-boot in 2012, adding they would no longer sit in laxity for their members to be beaten by NDC goons as happened in Chereponi, Atiwa, Akwatia and Agbogbloshie.

Mr. Agyarko told DAILY GUIDE yesterday that “we should stop this hypocrisy. NDC has visited violence upon this nation many a time. We refuse to be intimidated this time round. We are going to stand our grounds. Let the NDC, given their character, do their worst, we will be ready for them but we will not run.”

He therefore turned down a request by the NDC for Nana Addo to apologise for the “all die be die” comment.

“You apologise for a wrong. The NDC has to convince us what the wrong is ethnocentrism. That is a figment of their imagination. If you listen to what Nana Addo said, he said ‘ye se yen Akan fuo.’ Do you understand that, it means somebody told Nana Addo or they say? It is not Nana Addo saying ‘Akan fuo.”

Until then, Mr. Agyarko noted, “you don’t render an apology because someone insists you render an apology. “Nana Addo is not inciting anybody. He is not asking people to jump onto the streets with cudgels and cutlasses to attack the NDC.”

Instead, he said, all the NPP leader did was to send a message to the NDC that “if they continue in the fashion they have always done in Chereponi, Atiwa and all of those areas and if they believe that we are cowards and each time they will attack us we will run away, no. They will be wrong; this time round we will not run away”.

For him, his colleagues in the NDC are upset because “now their usual victim is ready to face them, the school-yard bully, that’s all it is.”

Mr. Agyarko recalled how his younger brother and former Chief Executive of the Food and Drugs Board (FDB), Emmanuel Agayrko, was nearly lynched by members of the NDC in the year 2008 when he stood as NPP parliamentary candidate for Lower Manya constituency in the Eastern Region.

A night before the 2008 general elections, Mr. Agyarko narrated that “seven armed men, armed with pump action guns driving the vehicle of the NDC MP, drove into his house (and) started firing.

“Luckily, my brother was not there but my sisters and other relatives who were in that house were recklessly beaten and most of them injured” he said, noting that “the attack is imminent again. They have threatened to attack him again.”

In that regard, the NPP Campaign Manager could not but say “the question I want to ask the NDC and all those who are saying that Nana Addo shouldn’t have said what he said is ‘what is the advice they should give my brother when the attack comes. What advice do they want to give my brother; that he should run away, is that what they are going to ask him to do when the next attack comes?”

He said that it would be important for those calling for the NPP presidential candidate to apologise to understand the context in which Nana Addo was speaking, stressing, “If the NDC insists on lying by taking part of the sentence away in its attempt to incriminate Nana Addo, shame on them.”