One Killed

In Accra flood
Posted: Daily Guide |Thursday, 24 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Several residents of Accra have been displaced by Tuesday’s torrential downpour with one person reported dead.

A young man whose name was given as Abubakar Barwuah was reported to have drowned in the Odaw River.

A visit to some of the affected areas including Glefe, the Kokomba market, and Kwame Nkrumah Circle showed a gloomy picture of the aftermath of the rain.

Though officials are yet to quantify the extent of damage, it is believed that the rain which started around 9:30pm and ended around 2am, destroyed properties running into several millions of cedis.

Several low-lying houses around the Kwame Nkrumah Circle were submerged.

At the time of the visit, some residents were seen removing their water-soaked properties including mattresses, sound systems, computers and other personal effects from their rooms to dry them outside, with signs of the water level marked on the walls.

Reports say Dansoman and its surrounding areas including Sakaman was the one of the hardest hit due to the ongoing road construction works in the area, coupled with the spillage of water from other water bodies nearby.

In areas like Korle Gonno, roofs of some buildings were also removed whilst houses were flooded, making it virtually impossible for some residents to come out of their houses until later in the day.

In some areas, the water was high up to the knee and waist levels whilst properties had been washed away.

At the Kokomba market and Glefe where a lot of slums have sprung up, people were finding it extremely difficult to clean the debris since their houses were still flooded.

Tuesday’s rain was the second in the month of February 2011.

Some residents of the Madina Redco Flats who called into Joy FM also reported of extensive flooding in the area.

One of such persons said after about two hours of rain, water levels in his home had reached the waist level forcing him and members of his household to move upstairs to safety.

“At the west point, the water level was above the windscreen level of my 4x4 vehicle. We had three 4x4 vehicles parked outside and they were all almost completely submerged,” he said.

The victim added that other homes in the area were not spared the fury of the floods.

A journalist at Alajo also had his residence flooded.

His only fear was of losing his Boer Bull dogs; but fortunately for him, they were rescued.

Flooding in Accra has become a perennial phenomenon with experts grappling with ways and means of containing it.

Over the past decade, floods have claimed several lives, and destroyed public infrastructure and property.

The rainfall of 4th July 1995 was the highest recorded in one event since 1936.

The 1995 floods caused damage to lives and property, disrupted infrastructural services like water supply, telephone, electricity, roads and railways. Seventeen (17) lives were lost in that flood while commercial and industrial activity was disrupted.

The most affected areas were those located within the flood plain of the Odaw and Onyasia rivers.

Experts attribute most of these floods that hit Accra to urbanization, reduced capacity of drainage systems, poor drains and culverts, maintenance, erosion and sediment delivery, obstructions, damming of water bodies, high rainfall intensities and tidal effects of the Korle Lagoon.

IC Quaye Spits Fire

Posted: Daily Guide |Tuesday, 22 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayawaso Central, Sheikh Ibrahim Cudjoe Quaye, has said that he and members of his family would not sit idle for any group to intimidate and take them for a ride.

The warning came a day after a group of marauding youth, suspected to be members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), attacked his family house and those of his other family members at Alajo, a suburb of Accra.

“Nobody sits in the comfort of his house for people to go and beat them and go scot free,” he said.

At a press conference at the family house yesterday, I. C. Quaye warned that the next time any group of persons would make any such attempt on their lives and property, he and his family members would be ready to face them squarely.

According to the MP, the attack took place at a time he was having a meeting with about 700 members of his party at his private residence at Roman Ridge.

The attackers, suspected to have been organised by the Assembly member-elect of the area, Abdul Aziz Sununu, and one William Quacoo Affum aka Obama, an NDC parliamentary hopeful in the constituency, allegedly vandalized five houses and vehicles in the house, broke into rooms and smashed glass windows including the office of Mohas, a company owned by Mohammed Quaye, a brother to the MP and chairman of the Alajo Town Development Association.

When news of the violence got to him, Sheikh said he immediately called in the police at Kotobabi who acted swiftly to stop what could have been a possible carnage if his people had decided to fight back.

But, Sheikh I.C. Quaye said their own investigations had led to the identification of ringleaders of the violence including Sadat Razak, Sumaila Victor, Mohammed Victor, Sani and Nurudeen Tetteh.

He hoped that the police would take the issue up for the law to take its course on the violent actions of the aforementioned individuals.

He also described as ‘stupid and nonsensical’ claims that his family house was attacked because he was keeping a cache of arms there, asking rhetorically, “So did they collect any weapons in my house?

Are they policemen who can just take the law into their own hands and conduct a search? Who sent them? They should tell me so that we take action against them.

"After causing all the damage thinking that there was no one here, when they were going, God made it possible for people to see the numbers and other details of the car that they used. We know and we are going to see the police with that information,” he said angrily.

“It is my sincere hope that this time around, the police will do everything possible to arrest the perpetrators of this violent act,” he said.

The MP had since called for calm and prevailed on family members and his numerous supporters who trooped to the house to commiserate with them when they heard news of the attack, to let the police do their work.

Meanwhile, the Assembly member of the area Abdul Aziz Sununu has denied being part of the vandalization that took place at I.C Quaye’s family house, indicating that what happened was an internal strife among members of the Quaye family.

NDC Gurus Fight Over Chop Chop

Posted: Daily Guide | Monday, 21 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
A big fight has broken out in the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) between the Central Regional Minister, Ama Benyiwa-Doe and the party’s communications director in the region, Bernard Allotey Jacobs, over the award of building contracts.

Ms. Doe, a former National Women’s Organizer, accuses Mr. Jacobs of hatching a plot to get her removed from office because she refused to give him contracts.

Media reports suggested that some individuals and groups have petitioned President Mills to remove Ms. Doe claiming she was the most inefficient government representative of all time in the Central Region.

But Benyiwa Doe, nicknamed ‘Ama Chavez’, believes “Allotey is behind all this”.

“If you read the newspaper story very well, it gives lead to Allotey Jacobs as the source of the story.”

The Central Regional Minister told Peace FM that this could be the result of strained relations between her and Jacobs, a Board member of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

According to her, she believed Allotey, who claims to be a contractor, was behind the negative reports on her “because he wanted a contract that does not exist and I couldn’t get it for him.”

She added, “He has gone to almost everybody who matters from the Central Region to the capital Accra, petitioning them that I should be removed from my position” –a claim Allotey Jacobs has since denied.

Apart from that, she said “he has gone to Mr. Quayson, the Chairman of the Revenue Agencies Board, he has come to Kwesi Ahwoi and Ato Ahwoi with the same allegation; so I have ample evidence that he is behind all this… this is his handiwork. Meanwhile, he was a CPP man and this is a CPP newspaper so the links are there.”

Allotey Jacobs, who calls himself an ‘educated fisherman’ however thinks Benyiwa Doe is only trying to create unnecessary attention for herself because he has done no such thing as she claims.

Though he admitted having a strained relation with the Minister, he denied having anything to do with the newspaper publication since his accuser could have equally planted the story to make it look as though some people including himself wanted her out.

Mr. Jacobs declined to comment on whether or not he had any such discussions about the possible removal or reshuffle of Benyiwa Doe, with the Ahwoi brothers, who are said to be the de facto leaders of this country.

He also declined to comment on whether or not Benyiwa Doe was competent enough to occupy the position of Central Regional Minister.

He rejected suggestions that he was eyeing Benyiwa Doe’s position, hence his alleged interest in seeing her out.

On the issue of the contract, the ‘educated fisherman’ said “it’s so funny that the contract came from the Ministry of Education and not from the region,” noting, “The person who helped me in getting that contract was George Lawson, our Deputy General Secretary who was then the Special Assistant to the Education Minister, who gave me that contract.”

For this reason, he said “it was not her who gave me that contract.”