Arrest NDC Anita

- NPP gurus charge police
Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguideghana.com
Saturday, 02 October 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Three key and influential members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), National Chairman Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, General Secretary Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie aka Sir John and Frances Assiam, have asked the police to arrest and prosecute the National Women’s Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Anita De Sooso who ran her vehicle into some youth of Abomosu, during the recent Atiwa bye-election.

They cannot fathom why the police have still not arrested Anita, after her vehicle ran through a mob at Abomosu, some of whom are still nursing various degrees of injuries.

“The evidence is there for all to see. Instead of this woman being hauled before the police to help in investigations, they are now calling on other people who are alleged to have… you know reported on that incident,” was how Mr. Owusu-Afriyie, a lawyer, put it.

Sir John made this remark when he and his two other colleagues honoured an invitation extended to them by the police over the issue.

National Chairman of the ruling NDC, Dr. Kwabena Adjei, on the other hand failed to honour a similar invitation extended to him by the police for his infamous comments of ‘several ways of killing a cat’, following a complaint lodged by pressure group, Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), in which they called for his arrest.

However, Attorney General and Minister of Justice Betty Mould Iddrisu, to whom the docket of the case was referred, has ordered the police to discontinue the case against Dr. Adjei.

The invitation of the three NPP gurus to the CID headquarters follows a complaint filed with the police by NDC serial callers group Media Analyst Group (MAG), which is led by lawyer Chris Akummey. The group filed the complaint against the 3 persons for supposedly making statements to the effect that two or more people died on the day of the recent Atiwa bye-election which allegedly later proved to be false.

They therefore asked the police to investigate the three NPP chieftains for making those comments.

At about 10:50am, the trio arrived at the CID headquarters in the company of some party functionaries and their lawyers.

Though they were asked to come in to take their seats, Jake and his colleagues said they preferred to hang around for sometime until 11am, the time they were asked to report.

They were ushered into the office of the Deputy Director of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Dogbeda to assist the police in their investigations into a complaint by the NDC group.

The meeting was held behind closed doors.

But the accounts of the trio indicated that the meeting was held in a friendly atmosphere since, according to Superintendent Kwesi Ofori, head of Public Affairs of the Police Service, the NPP gurus gave them the needed co-operation.

The police have thus resolved to invite them when the need arose whilst the trio also indicated their preparedness to honour any such invitation at any point in time.

According to General Secretary Owusu-Afiriyie, they were interrogated on the said comments but denied ever accusing the NDC of killing anybody.

Meanwhile, Anita’s victims, including an 18-year-old student of the Koforidua Senior High School, Isaac Agyemang-Duah, 40-year-old Ebenezer Adomako aka Kwasi Willie, a farmer, 38-year-old George Abu, also a farmer and 20-year-old Seth Ampofo and their relatives, have still not come to terms with the issue and the spin being put on it.

Gbevlo Lartey Strikes At KIA

Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguideghana.com
Monday, 04 October 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
THE ACTING National Security Coordinator, Lt. Col. Gbevlo Lartey (Rtd) has finally succeeded in carrying out his intentions of terminating the contract of some private security companies providing security services at the Kotaka International Airport (KIA).

This follows a decision by the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL) to terminate the contracts of two private security companies that had been operating at the airport for the past 3 years, without reason.

Somewhere in February 2009, Gbevlo Lartey issued a directive asking the various state institutions operating at the airport not to renew contracts they had with the various security companies operating there.

Though these companies had managed to maintain sanity at Ghana’s main entry point which was once bedeviled with serious thefts, the National Security Coordinator exerted pressure on GACL to terminate the contracts of the companies without reason.

He is thus believed to have influenced the decision to terminate the contract of the two companies since he was said to have forced the new Board of the GACL, which is chaired by Deputy Majority Chief Whip and Member of Parliament (MP) for Mfantsiman East, George Kuntu Blankson, to take the decision.

Subsequently, the Board also caused the dismissal of the Managing Director of the GACL, Elizabeth Annor Sackey and her deputy Yaw Kwakwa.

Both were relieved of their appointments without any specific reason since none was stated in their dismissal letters.

This, according to sources, was because they were appointed by the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.

The duo has since been replaced with Mrs. Doreen Owusu Fianko and J. Q Amedior, who are said to have strong links in the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), as the new Managing Director and Deputy respectively.

Sources close to the GACL said part of the reasons Mr. Kwakwa in particular was booted out was because he insisted on the strict adherence to tender processes as stated in the country’s Procurement Law and for the contract to be awarded to any security company that met the standards set for the job in spite of its political affiliation.

He was said to have made this suggestion at a time when the authorities including Mr. Gbevlo Lartey and the GACL Board were said to be making frantic efforts to circumvent laid-down rules in favour of their preferred choice of company, Sohin Security, a company which has virtually no experience in handling security issues at the airport.

But Mrs Fianko says there was nothing wrong with the termination of the contract of the two companies, though it was subject to renewal.

She made the statement when DAILY GUIDE contacted her for her contribution to the story.

“It’s not termination, the contract has ended. There was a tender whoever is…if they are not there then it means they didn’t win the tender,” she said.

Attempts to speak to Mr Gbevlo Lartey proved unsuccessful since his phone was said to be switched off or out of coverage area.

DAILY GUIDE sources at the Ministry of Interior have indeed confirmed that Sohin, which is owned by a strong member of the ruling party, Solomon Adelaquaye, managed to secure an operating license as a recognized private security company only three months ago.

Meanwhile, one of the basic requirements, as stated on the tender document, was for a company to have 6years experience before it would be awarded the contract.

Barely a month ago, a similar move was undertaken by the management of GACL which led to the termination of a contract with advertising company Alliance Media, which was operating advertising concessions at the KIA, because it was said to have been awarded the contract during the NPP regime.

The company has since sued the GACL together with Speedmasters Limited, a new company which has taken over the advertising concessions from the plaintiff.

According to Alliance Media, the GACL had acted in contravention of the Public Procurement Act to the extent that it paved the way for the second defendant, Speedmasters, to be in gross violation of the same Act and the terms of the request for proposal.

The company is therefore praying the court to give an order of mandamus to compel the GACL to award its advertising concession on contract to the plaintiff, for being the best offer and responsible tender.

Now that the contracts of the companies have been terminated, several employees of the affected security companies are expected to be laid off.

This is likely to have a telling effect on an economy that is struggling to be on its feet. The situation has compelled some individuals and group of persons operating at the airport to raise questions about the prudence of the decision.

I Had No Sex With Secretary

Posted: Daily Guide |www.dailyguideghana.com
Friday, 01 October 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Mubarak
Former Minister for Youth and Sports, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak yesterday made his first appearance at the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) probing him, admitting that he introduced his supposed ‘girlfriend’ Edith Zinayela to his former Ministry as his secretary.

Muntaka however denied having any romantic or amorous relationship with the said lady, who was a secretary to Alban Bagbin at the time they travelled to Germany together. He also denied influencing the processes that led to her acquisition of the German visa which enabled her to travel with him.

CHRAJ is investigating him for allegedly “fraudulently acquiring a German visa for his girlfriend, Edith Zinayela, under the pretext that she was an employee of the Ministry of Youth and Sports when Ms. Edith is an employee of the Parliament of the Republic of Ghana.”

He narrated the circumstances leading to the inclusion of the lady on the trip to Germany together with then acting Director of the National Sports Council (NSC), Charles Aryeh and one Kofi Kukubor, who facilitated the trip on behalf of the sporting kit company, Puma.

At the time he assumed the position, Muntaka said the Ministry was understaffed and so he could not have taken his secretary along on the Germany trip- a trip which was an all-expense one including flight, accommodation, food and others paid for by Puma with the exception of the visa application fee.

According to the embattled former minister, the trip, which was at the behest of Puma, was to explore avenues for the company to sponsor the national sports associations with kits, emphasizing that all the three persons who went with him on the trip went for a purpose.

The former Minister, who is also the sitting Member of Parliament (MP)for Asawase in the Ashanti region, said he followed established precedent and recommended Edith whose competence he could vouch for and therefore recommended her for consideration at a management meeting.

Edith, who was then secretary to the Majority leader in Parliament, Alban Bagbin, was to serve as their secretary while in Germany.

“It was agreed that if I take my secretary, what it’s going to mean is that my office is going to be closed. So if I take any secretary within the block because we didn’t have enough of them (sic),” he noted.

For this reason, he said, “I just said, okay can that be left with me to deal with and it was agreed at that management meeting. So when I talked to the Chief Director that….can I bring a Secretary from the Majority secretariat (sic).”

An obviously frustrated Muntaka added “and all I did, Mr. Commissioner I know I’m under oath, was to submit the name and the telephone number of this lady. That was all.”

The former Minister said he submitted her name to the Chief Director of the Ministry, stressing that it was the Ministry and not he who applied for Edith’s visa for her since a Deputy Director at the same Ministry, Allen Agbenator was given that responsibility.

He tendered in copies of letters which were sent to the German Embassy to provide the needed assistance to him and members of his delegation for the trip and a copy of letter requesting a visa for Edith as evidence.

Muntaka also denied claims that his supposed ‘girlfriend’ was paid any per diem since no such facility was available.

Instead, he said it was only him and Charles Aryeh who took what he described as ‘abated’ (not full) per diem, indicating that Kofi Kukubor was also not paid anything.

Asked whether it was a standard practice for people who are not staff of the Ministry to be co-opted to travel with the Minister on foreign trips, as in the case of Edith Zinayela who is now at large, Muntaka answered in the affirmative and cited an instance in the year 2007 where a similar thing was done for one Georgina Abankwa, a Marketing and Advertising Manager at the same Ministry.

Muntaka thus tendered in a copy of the request for visa for Georgina Abankwa but the issues that it generated alone made his lawyers, William Kissi Agyebeng, a criminal law lecturer at the University of Ghana, and Kwesi Baffoe Instiful, to withdraw it immediately as evidence.

Hearing has been adjourned to Monday, October 4, 2010.