Asiedu Nketia’s Plush Mansions

Posted: Daily Guide | Wednesday, 02 March 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Members of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) who have always demonised the New Patriotic Party’s property-owning philosophy seem to have been caught by their own deeds as many embark on a ‘property-grabbing’ mission.

Latest among several others who have been captured by DAILY GUIDE’s investigative team is none other than the General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu-Nketiah, popularly called General Mosquito.

Apart from his block-manufacturing company which has landed him in a controversial case of conflict of interest regarding his dealings with the Bui Power Authority (BPA), the NDC General Secretary is believed to have simultaneously put up two big mansions in Accra and Kumasi within the last two years.

Mr. Asiedu-Nketiah however declined to answer queries regarding the alleged properties when contacted by DAILY GUIDE yesterday, because he claimed the newspaper had published twisted stories about him.

“I’m not talking to you because anytime you call and I tell you the truth about what I know, you still go ahead and publish things against me so you may go and publish what you want to publish,” he said amidst threats that “I will take my decision. If it is libelous, I will deal with you.”

In spite of his refusal to speak on the issue, residents of Oyarifa, a developing community along the Accra-Aburi highway where one of the imposing two-storey buildings is located, are convinced that the house belongs to the NDC General Secretary since he visited the place each day to see the level of progress of work.

Painters were busily whitewashing the edifice when DAILY GUIDE visited the site last week.

Sources say actual work on the two-storey building commenced somewhere in November 2009 and within the space of a year, it has been completed.

The only thing that is probably left would be the interior decoration since everything seems set for its owners to move in.

The house, which is touted as one of the finest in the area, is fitted with a number of air conditioners, water reservoir and satellite dish, with street lights around it.

It also has a security post attached to it. At the time DAILY GUIDE visited the site, workers were busily putting finishing touches to it, with painting almost near completion.

Mr. Asiedu-Nketiah, a native of Seikwa, who currently lives in the centre of Accra, visits the project site each day.

Residents of the area, which is sprouting with new buildings, expressed surprise at the speed with which the building was completed, considering the fact that several of such types of buildings in the area which began long before that of General Mosquito’s were nowhere near completion.

Most of these residents said they did not know the owner of the building until they started seeing General Mosquito when the work started moving at a fast pace.

He is also said to have put up another plush mansion at Daaban Panyin, a suburb of Kumasi.

This other two-storey building is believed to have taken six months to construct and it is almost near completion, with a boy’s quarters. Landscaping is already being done at top speed.

Residents alleged the materials used for the construction of the building, including bags of cement, were usually sent to the project site in articulated trucks, with a man suspected to be his brother supervising.

General Mosquito was said to have usually visited the Daaban building site in the night, probably to avoid prying eyes.

Checks by DAILY GUIDE revealed that the land on which the building is situated was initially owned by government but later on reverted to the Kaase stool, the original owners of the Daaban Panyin lands.

Due to the lavish nature of the building, residents told DAILY GUIDE, several developers trooped to the site to take photographs of the building, with the view to replicating the plan.

When DAILY GUIDE visited the site, the watchman in whose care the building was, was busily working on the lawn outside the house.

DAILY GUIDE was told the needed materials had already been brought in, expected to have been fixed by now.

Rawlings Flares Up

Posted: Daily Guide | Friday, 25 February 2011
www.dailyguideghana.com
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Former President Jerry John Rawlings yesterday broke loose at the Constitution Review Commission’s sitting scheduled for him when he was heard shouting.

His attitude therefore broke the code of silence associated with the high-profile personalities’ (including former and incumbent Presidents and their Vices) sessions with the commissioners to make their inputs into the review of the country’s 1992 constitution.

When Mr. Rawlings arrived at the Commission’s office at Cantonments around 11:30am in the company of his special aide, Kofi Adams, he exchanged pleasantries with the commissioners before the hearing, which was a closed session, began.

All seemed to be going well until Mr. Rawlings, under whose tenure as a military dictator the current constitution came into being, was overheard shouting at the meeting.

It is not clear what might have triggered his sudden outburst since details of the meeting were not made public.

After almost two hours, the former President, also the founder of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), came out of the meeting with members of the Commission and had a brief interaction with the media before driving away.

His aide declined to answer questions from the media and also drove off.

Though speculations were rife that some comments by some members of the Commission could have startled Mr. Rawlings, CRC’s Executive Secretary, Dr. Raymond Atuguba, said the former President was not provoked and that the raising of his voice was his usual way of talking.

“You know the man. That is the way he talks,” was what he told DAILY GUIDE when contacted.

However, it was generally rumoured that the mention of the ‘Indemnity Clauses’ in the constitution might have ruffled his feathers. The indemnity clauses are a part of the Transitional Provisions of the Constitution which provide blanket protection for all coup makers in the various military administrations which toppled constitutionally and democratically elected governments.

Mr. Rawlings said the meeting went well and members of the Commission were very receptive.

Asked whether the country’s Constitution had been tried and tested enough to warrant a review as being done, he said, “This happens once in a while as a result of changing circumstances, okay and if there is the need for something to be altered, it would be okay, if there is no need for it, it would not. But I think the opportunity ought to be created for it and I believe this is what has been done.”

The commissioners met President Mills at the Castle yesterday even though it was not clear if they took his views on the review or not.

Meanwhile, the Commission is expected to hold a week’s national conference from Tuesday, 1st March 2011 at the Accra International Conference Center.

The conference, which would be addressed by President Mills, is expected to serve as a representative national platform where the over 75,000 submissions received and processed will be tabled for national debate.

It is also expected to bring together persons with expert knowledge on the various thematic areas gathered by the submissions to assist the conference to arrive at options for constitutional redesign.

The submissions received so far have been synthesized into 12 thematic areas. These have been further broken down into some 77 sub themes and about 548 issues and would be tabled for a national debate.

Participants at the conference are being drawn from the public, private and civil society organizations.

Identifiable groups such as political parties, youth groups, gender groups, persons with disability, children, professional bodies and associations, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), private sector as well as eminent persons, facilitators and national and international consultants are expected to participate.

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.