NDC Composes New Slogan
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has composed a new slogan which is the opposite of the national currency re-denomination slogan being used to educate the general public about the exercise due to take off in July this year.
Instead of singing the song, “there is no change in value, the value is the same”, the NDC slogan says, “There is no change in suffering, the suffering is the same”.
The Eastern Regional Chairman of the NDC, Mr. Julius Debrah like a renowned gospel musician, composed the slogan when welcoming Regional Organizers and Secretaries to a two- day strategic workshop at Bunso on April 19. Mr. Debrah won the hearts of the National Chairman, Dr. Kwabena Adjei; National Secretary, Mr. Asiedu Nketia; National Organizer, Mr. Samuel Ofusu Ampofo and other party members gathered there with his song which saw all of them singing it intermittently. Dr. Adjei, addressing the party members, said the NDC finds election 2008 the greatest challenge to the very existence of their party and even to the existence of all Ghanaians. According to him, a great majority of the public were seriously yearning for a change of government that could provide them with hope, opportunity, sustainable livelihood, dignity and honour as human beings, which they believe, could only take place through the ballot box and NDC was working towards that.
He said it is clear that the party’s compatriots would never forgive them if they fail to deliver them from the crunching economic hardship and bad governance policies and actions of the NPP. The NDC National Chairman reminded party members who may be thinking of acquiring power and property overnight without working for it, that they are in the wrong camp.
“We need to work together to bring the NDC to power before we can think of how the benefit of being in power will accrue to each and everyone of us and to the very people we have committed ourselves to serve”, he advised them. Dr. Adjei told the party executives that the horrible economic, social and political situation Ghanaians currently find themselves under the NPP government should be their wake up call to seriously and relentlessly embark on their campaigns to educate the people to unseat the NPP government come 2008.
“The energy crisis, high cost of living, expensive, inefficient and accessible health care, education, housing, transportation and utility deliveries, the rising rates of unemployment, crime, ritual murders, drug trafficking and selective justice as well as the high incidence of official corruption and discrimination should be your armour”, he stated.
He asked the party executives to always remember that their electoral victory was at risk when their competitors get access to their plans, strategies, schemes or tactics. The NDC leader asked other Regional and Constituency Executives to stop their disappointing behaviour of refusing to distribute to members information issued to them by the National Executive Committee (NEC).
Source:
Chronicle
Driver Tortured to death in Kumasi
Collins Okyere, also known as Nana Kwame Sarpong, 35, died on Saturday after he was allegedly and repeatedly tortured by officers of the Striking Force Unit.
The 35-year-old trotro driver from Anomanye, Suame in Kumasi was arrested last Wednesday on suspicion of robbery when the police apprehended a stolen taxi he was a passenger in.
According to the murdered man's mother, Theresa Manu, her son was beaten to confess even though the driver of the stolen vehicle had told the police that Nana Kwame was innocent and should therefore be set free.
But the police are refuting Madam Manu's story. According to the Deputy Public Affairs Officer, Ashanti Region, Mohammed Tanko, the deceased was part of a car-jacking gang that was arrested by the Striking Force. He told The Statesman that Nana Kwame was identified with a gang suspected to have stolen several vehicles in Kumasi. The police, he said, have "witnesses to testify to their crime."
Narrating her story to the STATESMAN newspaper, the grieving mother of the deceased said her son was at home with her at Suame last Wednesday morning when a colleague driver of his late son drove to the house in a taxi, accompanied by his girlfriend. His son joined them to the Suame Magazine, apparently to undertake repair work on the vehicle.
She said on reaching the Suame Magazine, the taxi was surrounded by armed officers from the Striking Force Unit. She said they were arrested on charges of the vehicle being a stolen one and taken to the police station where they were held for questioning.
Madam Manu said she was informed by someone about her son's arrest so she rushed to the police station where she saw her son and the others behind bars. According to the mother, the driver confessed to the police but added that her son, Nana Kwame, knew nothing about it, pleading with the police for his release.
Madam Manu told the paper of the numerous times her son was allegedly tortured.
"I was outside when other people who had come to the police station to visit their relatives screamed that my son had collapsed and was dying. When I went closer to the counter I saw him lying there with the police looking on unconcerned. They rather complained that he was epileptic; something I know not to be true! I went straight to my son and fed him with water to revive him," she narrated.
Within seconds of reviving her son, one police officer allegedly started hitting him again demanding a confession.
On the third day, she alleged her son was again beaten mercilessly for pouring water on the floor of the station.
Madam Manu said the following day she sent her children to go and give their brother food only for them to rush back that their brother was nowhere to be found as no one was willing to tell them his whereabouts.
“It later transpired that the body had been deposited at the mortuary, where the STATESMAN correspondent and colleagues managed to sneak in and take snaps of the body. The police were later on confronted with the gruesome photographs, which showed how Nana Kwame was beaten to pulp.”
While maintaining there was evidence implicating the deceased in crime, Mr Tanko conceded that law enforcement agents cannot subject suspects in their custody to torture. The police administration in the Ashanti Region has put up a team to investigate the death of Nana Kwame and also look into the deceased family's allegation of police brutalities.
"The police as an institution is against and does not endorse or encourage torture or any form of brutalities," he said. He assured the public that any officer found to be liable would be dealt with according to the law of the land.
The Statesman said results of an autopsy report from the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital was expected to be announced by noon of Tuesday.
Source:
Culled from The Statesman
Unemployed commits suicide at Winneba
Winneba(C/R), April 24, GNA -
A 21-year-old unemployed, Matthew Acheampong, was last Monday found dead in his room with a blue rope around his neck tied to the ceiling at Winneba.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Nicholas Gasu Winneba District Police Commander told the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday, that at about 2100 hours on April 16, some co-tenants of the deceased reported to the police that he had not been seen for the past three days.
In addition, there was an unusual scent coming from his room and when some police personnel and some tenants forced the door opened, they found the deceased with a blue rope around his neck tied to the ceiling.
DSP Gasu said the police found a photograph of girl and written at the back "Mary what have I done to you".
He said an autopsy had been performed on the deceased and the corpse released to the relatives for burial while the police continued with investigations.
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GNA
Ghana's land tenure system is bogus -VEP
Pretoria, GNA - Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama has suggested the need for Ghana to streamline the prevailing land tenure system, which he described as problematic and an affront to the development objectives of Government.
Vice President Mahama, who made this known in Pretoria, during a meeting with Ghanaians in South Africa, said land litigations were often the bane of government's investment drive.
The meeting climaxed a week's visit to the country, where the Vice President, who was accompanied by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and NEPAD, Mr Akwasi Osei-Adjei and Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry and PSI, Ms Gifty Ohene Konadu, addressed a two-day Ghana and South Africa Business and Investment Forum at Midrand near Pretoria.
The forum, which was organised by Ghana Mission in Pretoria in collaboration with the Ghana Investment and Promotion Centre, was part of activities to commemorate Ghana's 50th independence anniversary celebrations in South Africa.
Vice President Mahama, who used his meeting to explain government policies and development programmes at home said: "Any visitor to Ghana for the past five years would see a new Ghana so far as roads are concerned.
"A number of ulterior roads have been asphalted or improved upon," he said, citing the Wa-Bamboi road, which links Northern and Upper West regions.
Vice President Mahama said 53 out of the 106 kilometres of the road, had been improved upon.
He said within a period of four years government had imported over 1,000 tractors for agriculture production. Government, he said, was also committed to reduce the cost of doing business in Ghana.
He lauded the National Health Insurance Scheme introduced by the ruling New Patriotic party, stating that the scheme was harvesting good results.
Vice President Mahama asked Ghanaians in South Africa to be worthy ambassadors of Ghana by being law abiding. They must also woo investors to Ghana, stressing, "Nobody except Ghanaians can build Ghana." Vice President Mahama reiterated that trading between Ghana and South Africa is not balanced hence his visit to the country to help balance the equation.
He said Ghana had all that it takes to influence investors to the country and referred to the good strides the national economy was taking.
Vice President Mahama said Ghana believed in the rule of law while the Judiciary was independent. He described media freedom in Ghana as unparallel, stressing: "The US with its 200 years of democratic history does not have the prevailing Media independence in Ghana now."
The Ghanaian community led by Mrs Shormeh Gyamfi-Aidoo, President of the Ghanaian Association in Pretoria, called for the need to consolidate the development gains at home and the creation of a conducive atmosphere for investments at home. 24 April 07
Source:
Nana Kodjo Jehu-Appiah, GNA Special Correspondent, Pretoria