Chief Justice is dead
Accra, 25.03.2007, GNA-
The Chief Justice of Ghana, Justice George Kingsley Acquah is dead. He was 65 years.
He died at the 37th Military Hospital early Sunday morning from cancer, hospital sources told the Ghana News Agency in Accra. Justice Acquah had been receiving treatment in India and the United States for the ailment.
Justice Acquah, who was appointed as Chief Justice in June 20, 2003, would be remembered for attempting to reconcile Ghana's traditional adjudication laws with the imposed colonial ones.
He was born in Sekondi in the Western Region on March 6, 1942. He attended the Adisadel College, Cape Coast from 1957 to 1963, where he obtained both the Ordinary and Advanced level Certificates of the West African Examinations Council.
Justice Acquah then gained admission to the University of Ghana, Legon, in 1964 where he obtained LL.B Honours in Law. In 1970 he entered the Ghana Law School where he obtained the professional certificate in Law. He was called to the Bar in 1972.
His employment record includes private legal practitioner from 1972 to 1989, High Court Judge from 1989 to 1994, Appeal Court Judge from 1994 to 1995 and Supreme Court Judge from 1995 to date. He held national and international positions such as Patron, Commonwealth legal Education Association, London.
Justice Acquah left behind a wife and six children.
Source:
GNA
Chiefs advised not to relinquish traditional roles
Saboba (NR), 25.03.2007, GNA -
Chiefs and elders in the communities have been advised not to relinquish their traditional roles to the youth who are too young to understand and handle delicate issues of inter-ethnic relations for sustenance of peace and unity. They should continue with the responsibility of guiding the youth to grow to become responsive to society to ensure peaceful coexistence and not to abandon their traditional authority to them to create unnecessary conflicts that retards development.
Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, Northern Regional Minister gave the advice at the weekend at Saboba in the Saboba Cheriponi District when he addressed students and teachers of the Saboba St. Joseph's Technical/Vocational Institute and chiefs of Saboba and surrounding communities during the launching ceremony of the school's 40th anniversary celebration.
The purpose of the launch was to solicit funds and public support towards the climax of the anniversary celebration in October this year and also to drum home the need for technical education in northern Ghana for rapid development.
Alhaji Idris said chiefs and opinion leaders have the moral responsibility to restrain the youth who were prone to causing havoc to ensure that there was relative peace in the country and in the Northern Region in particular for total freedom and development. He said the country and Northern Region in particular needed peace saying, "We should all agree and resolve now to settle our grievances and differences through dialogue and not war."
Alhaji Idris commended the chiefs and people of the Saboba/Cheriponi District for maintaining peace over the years and that democracy and development work best in an atmosphere of peace. He, however, expressed worry about recent unpleasant developments in Bimbilla where "War drums" were beaten and that the Regional Security Council (REGSEC) and the government would not countenance the breach of the peace.
He said the REGSEC had acted swiftly on all rumours on an acquisition of arms and ammunitions into the Nanum areas to prepare for conflict between Nanumbas and Konkombas and called for peace and unity. The Minister commended the founding fathers of St. Joseph's Technical /Vocational Institute, which was the first to be established in the Northern Region by the Catholic Church and assured government's readiness to assist the school with infrastructure to salvage some of its problems.
Mr. Azumah Namoro Sanda, DCE for Saboba/Cheriponi called on politicians to use Ghana's year-long, 50th anniversary celebration to preach good governance for the populace to understand the true meaning of democracy.
He said the golden jubilee should spur Ghanaians on to work for better future and that there was the need to eschew tribalism, rumour mongering, selfishness and should remain patriotic to help build the nation.
Mr. Godfred Axolu, Principal of the Institute enumerated the achievements and problems of the school and appealed to past students, District Assemblies and the Central Government to support the school to improve standards.
The Most Reverend Vincent Sowah Boi-Nai, Catholic Bishop of the Yendi Diocese, who launched the programme stressed the need for stocktaking to identify new challenges and called on all to work collectively to ensure a successful 40th anniversary.
Source:
GNA
Drug barons pose as investors
The 2007 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR)) has pointed out that Ghana’s enthusiasm in attracting foreign investment has provided a good cover for drug barons, mostly from South America to enter the country under the guise of doing legitimate business.
The report said in 2006 South American cocaine trafficking rings increased their foothold in Ghana, establishing well-developed distribution networks run by Nigerian and Ghanaian criminals.
However, the South American traffickers reduced their need to visit Ghana in person by increasing reliance on local partners, thus further insulating themselves from possible arrest by local authorities.
In 2006 Ghana was rated Africa’s most reformist country and the ninth in the world, having undertaken three major reforms in 2005- the time taken to clear goods, tax reduction and property registration. This accounts for the steady increase in the number and type of investments Ghana is attracting, but not all of them are genuine investors after all, according to the report. The wanted Venezuelan drug baron, Vasquez Gerardo Daurte was reported to have disguised and entered Ghana as an investor, ready to set up business in the free zones enclave with the alleged connivance of some top opposition politicians. It turned out that he was using the so-called investments as a cover up for his drug business.
The report also said in spite of the fact that Ghana has taken steps to combat illicit trafficking of narcotic drugs and other substances, corruption and lack of resources have been hampering the nation’s efforts at combating the drug menace.
The report issued by the United States’ Department of State says a “national narcotics scandal in 2006 involving allegations of official complicity in narcotics trafficking complicated Ghana’s efforts to combat the drug trade.” The report released on March 1, 2007 also said Ghana has become a major transshipment point for illegal drugs particularly cocaine from South America as well as heroine from South East and South West Asia. Europe remains a major destination, while drugs also flow to South Africa and to North America, according to the report.
It says the Kotoka International Airport is increasingly becoming a focus for traffickers. Also Ports at Tema, Sekondi -Takoradi and border posts at Aflao (Togo) and Elubo and Sampa (Cote d’Ivoire) are also used as trafficking points.
In May 2006 five kilograms of cocaine went missing from a police locker. An ensuing investigation, received extensive domestic media attention, quickly expanded to other cases. In the most prominent case, security agencies interdicted a ship, the MV Benjamin, thought to have been carrying as much as two tons of cocaine, of which authorities only seized thirty kilograms. The scandal intensified when a secret recording that caught an Assistant Commissioner of Police and known narcotics traffickers on tape discussing cocaine shipment surfaced. An allegation by a woman that a different senior police official requested a $200,000 bribe in order to drop a case against her boyfriend, a foreign cocaine trafficker only exposed the extent of complicity of security agencies in the drugs business.
Amid the scandals, the ruling party and the opposition political parties tried to score political points. As a result of these scandals, a handful of law enforcement officials lost their jobs and the government renewed its focus on how to combat the narcotics trade.
Further, the report hints that trafficking has also fueled increasing domestic drug consumption. Cannabis use is increasing in Ghana, as is local cultivation of cannabis. Law enforcement officials have repeatedly raised concerns that narcotics rings are growing in size, strength, organization and capacity for violence. The government has mounted significant public education programs, as well as cannabis crop substitution programs.
These activities include enforcement and control, education, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and social reintegration. The two top officials at the NCB were suspended at the outset of the 2006 narcotics scandal. The Ministry of Interior set up a fact-finding committee to investigate the loss of the two tons of cocaine apparently not seized by enforcement personnel, and related issues.
The report explained that since 1999, the Narcotics Control Board (NCB) proposed to amend the 1990 narcotics law to fund NCB operations using a portion of seized proceeds, but the Attorney General’s office has not acted on this proposal. In 2006, the Attorney General succeeded in amending the narcotics law to allow stricter application of the bail bond system when drugs suspects are being investigated.
The report lamented that attempts to amend PNDC Law 236 (1990) to enable the NCB to confiscate property and assets purchased by identified drug dealers using illegal proceeds failed.
On the positive note however, the government began drafting a Proceeds of Crime Bill and a Money Laundering Bill in 2006, and final drafts were reportedly near completion by year’s end. The government reportedly plans to present the bills to Parliament for consideration in early 2007.
The Report also says in 2006, Ghanaian law enforcement agencies continued to conduct joint police/NCB operations against narcotics cultivators, traffickers, and abusers. NCB agents, who are not armed, rely upon the police’s Criminal Investigative Division’s (CID) narcotics unit in situations requiring armed force.
The NCB continued to work with DHL, UPS, and Federal Express to intercept packages containing narcotics. As a result, total seizures of cocaine, heroin, and cannabis from January to September 2006 decreased by 17 percent compared to the same period in 2005, likely reflecting a temporary decrease in trafficking activity following the 2006 narcotics scandal.
Projected fourth quarter data (based on data for the earlier part of the year) suggests that the number of cocaine arrests in 2006 dropped to roughly half that of 2005, while heroin and cannabis arrests both showed modest declines. Ghana is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention, the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and the 1961 UN Single Convention, as amended by the 1972 Protocol. U.S.-Ghana extradition relations are governed by the 1931 U.S.-U.K. Extradition Treaty.
In 2003, Ghana signed a bilateral Customs Mutual Assistance Agreement with the United States. In July 2006, Ghana ratified both the UN Convention against Corruption and the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption. Ghana has not signed the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
Source:
Public Agenda
Anuanom to process jatropha into bio-diesel
Makessim (C/R), 25.03.2007 , GNA -
Anuanom Industries at Gomoa Pomadze in the Central Region has installed a 500-ton capacity machine for processing jatropha seeds into bio-diesel.
The company has also installed a 2000-ton capacity equipment for producing organic fertilizer from the by-product of the bio-diesel. Onua Amoah, a Ghanaian industrialist who introduced the production of bio-diesel from jatropha seeds announced this at a jatropha implementation workshop at Mankessim.
Metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives, officials of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and bankers from 24 districts in the country attended the workshop, organised by the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment.
Onua Amoah said since the bio-diesel project was to reduce cost of importing diesel into the country, every efforts would be made to ensure that production was done at minimal cost.
He assured farmers to ready market for the crop, allaying fears that jatropha would suffer the ordeal farmers went through in marketing crops like coffee, sunflower and cashew.
Mr Abraham Dwuma Odoom, Deputy Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment announced that government has voted 15 billion cedis for the development of jatropha in the country. Mr Odoom who is also Chairman of the Jatropha Implementation Committee said out of the amount three billion cedis had been released for the production of seeds, while 12 billion cedis was ready at the banks to be accessed by persons interested in the cultivation of the jatropha in the districts.
He said at moment seeds were available for cultivation of about 2,500 hectares of land and gave the assurance that by next year there would be seeds to cultivate nearly 5,000 hectares of land. The Deputy Minister cautioned the banks not to sit on the money but to release them in time for successful implementation of the project. Mr Brown Matthew Oppong, National Co-ordinator of Community Based Rural Development Projects (CBRDP) said about five million dollars being the Natural Resource Management Component of the CBRDP, which was meant for the rehabilitation of degraded environment could also be accessed for the jatropha project.
Source:
GNA