AMA Boys Run Amok

Posted: Daily Guide | Friday, 12 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
AUTHORITIES OF the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) yesterday unleashed their taskforce on innocent traders at the Pedestrian Shopping Mall at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra.

The taskforce, numbering about 50 and led by a police sergeant whose name was given as George, wrecked the tables on which the traders were selling their goods.

Sergeant George is said to be in charge of security at the Pedestrian Shopping Mall.

Members of taskforce, who were wielding clubs, went to the mall in two trucks.

Meanwhile, the traders claim they were not given any prior notice before the exercise.

Immediately they entered the mall, between 8:30 and 9am, the burly members of the taskforce started vandalizing the tables on which traders were selling their goods, after which they proceeded to destroy goods, including foodstuffs.

In the process, members of the taskforce hit a middle-aged woman, Madam Boakyewaa, on the neck as she attempted to protect her goods and table from being destroyed.

The woman collapsed instantly as members of the team looked on unconcerned.

Some traders attempted to rescue their collapsed colleague and send her to the hospital for treatment, but the members of the taskforce would not budge. Their pleas to take Madam Boakyewaa to the hospital fell on deaf ears.

For fear of losing her colleague, 60-year-old Esther Odi mustered the courage to approach the team and ask for Madam Boakyewaa’s release. Madam Odi’s plea however provoked the taskforce further, and she too was clubbed.

They then pounced on her whilst the innocent woman was writhing in pain on the ground.

Upon realising that things were getting out of hand, members of the taskforce rushed Madam Boakyewaa to the famous Holy Gardens where they made frantic efforts to revive her.

They poured several bags of sachet water on her before she regained consciousness, after which she was handed to her colleagues.

One of the traders who managed to record the entire incident on his G.Tide mobile phone had to give it up to the taskforce after they found out.

When the phone was later released to him at the Holy Gardens office of the taskforce, the video and other still pictures he had taken during the exercise had all been deleted.

The affected traders have therefore appealed to the government, and for that matter the AMA, to allow them to sell their goods since most of them have dependants and families to take care of.

Aside from that, most of them claim they have contracted loans from banks, with which they are doing business and do not know how to pay them back without working.
Efforts to reach the market authorities and the AMA for their comments proved futile.

NDC Ministers Culpable

Posted: The Daily Guide |Wednesday, 10 March 2010

By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The Chief Prosecutor in the Mabey & Johnson (M&J) case in which some senior members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, including Ministers of State, have been indicted, has indicated that there is documentary evidence to support their prosecution.

He said the documents point to their culpability.

John Hardy noted that the prosecution cited bank accounts extract cheques and the like, which supported the bribery allegation against the Ghanaian officials.

In an interview with DAILY GUIDE yesterday, Mr Hardy, who is in the country on the invitation of the Danquah Institute (DI), noted that the information was not uncovered by an investigation but revealed to the investigation team by M&J officials.

Unlike the directors and managers of the company who were and are still under investigation in their individual capacities, he noted that the Ghanaian officials were not going to be the subject of prosecution in the United Kingdom (UK).

On the issue of why the prosecution failed to disclose the names and identities of the officials of M&J but chose to code-name them, Mr Hardy, who is an international criminal law specialist, noted that it would have prejudiced any future trial of the individuals involved since they were and are still under investigation.

“For that reason, it was decided not to name them,” he noted.

That notwithstanding, the Chief Prosecutor noted that by the same thinking in explaining the guilt of the company, “it is necessary to know whether they were corrupting officials very much low down at the local level or national figures.”

For this reason, he emphasised that a decision was taken for the case against the company to proceed, irrespective of the stage of development of any investigation against the directors.

Meanwhile, Mr Hardy is scheduled to meet the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to provide it with some basic information which he believes would assist the government and people of Ghana in their investigation of the officials involved.

Considering the fact that he is not in the country on the ticket of the British government, Mr Hardy indicated that he can only share his experience with the Ghanaian authorities and not, as it were, exchange information.

Yesterday, Mr. Hardy delivered a lecture at the British Council Hall in Accra under the theme, ‘Protecting Ghana and Ghana’s Emerging Financial Offshore Centre from Money Laundering.’
He is scheduled to deliver another such lecture on corruption at the K.A. Busia Hall of the University of Ghana, Legon, under the theme, ‘International Corruption - How Ghana Can Collaborate with the UK and Others to Beat It.’

NDC Lies Exposed

Posted: Daily Guide |Friday, 05 March 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu

THE OPPOSITION New Patriotic Party (NPP) has provided just enough evidence to disprove the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and its leadership’s claims that they were not invited to the former’s national delegates conference in Kumasi.

The party has been compelled by the raving and ranting of the likes of Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, the General Secretary of the NDC, and Richard Quashigah, the Propaganda Secretary, to provide substantial evidence of the invitations extended to the party.

The evidence included a receipt voucher which accompanied the invitation letters sent to the national chairman of the NDC, Dr. Kwabena Adjei, the NDC as a party and various political parties and their national chairmen, twenty-two clears days before the main event; February 5, 2010.

A copy of the receipt voucher, which is in the possession of DAILY GUIDE, indicates that not only the NDC, but the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), Peoples National Convention (PNC) and the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) indeed acknowledged receipt of the invitations extended to them.

In the case of the NDC, and for that matter its national chairman, Dr. Kwabena Adjei, the voucher indicated that one Bonney at the party headquarters duly signed and received the invitation on his behalf.

For this reason the NPP believes that if for one reason or the other Dr. Kwabena Adjei and the NDC failed to respond and honour the invitation, they should not create the impression that they were not invited.
The NPP believes that the NDC deliberately did not show up at its national delegates conference and for that matter their claims are false.

The opposition party thus demands that the ruling party retract statements suggesting they were not invited.

Communications Director of the party, Kwaku Kwarteng yesterday said they were making the documents public in order to stop the NDC from misinforming Ghanaians.

“We think it is healthy for our democracy that relationships be clean; political parties be cordial”, was how he put it, stressing that “this will conclude the matter and that the NDC retract their denial and apologise to the people of this country”.

As of yesterday, Asiedu Nketiah, popularly known as General Mosquito, was still insisting on Citi FM that the party that did not receive the invitation.

His argument was that it was not brought by a senior member of the NPP, and that accounted for the confusion.

In a related development, the International Democrat Union (IDU) has congratulated the NPP for a successful national delegates conference.

A statement signed by its General Secretary, Eirik Moen recognised the invaluable contribution of the party’s former chairman, Peter Mac Manu.

As party chairman and chairman of the Democratic Union of Africa (DUA), the statement said “Peter Mac Manu has been an excellent global ambassador for the NPP, as well as a superb DUA chairman”.

It thus expressed hope and optimism that the DUA will be able to benefit from his experience and good council for many years to come.