Thursday, March 13, 2008

Amansie Central awards scholarships to 165 students

Story: Kwame Asare Boadu, Jacobu
13/03/08
IN line with its policy to uplift the standard of education in the Amansie Central District, the District Assembly has awarded scholarships to 165 students to pursue various programmes in tertiary institutions in the country within the next three years.
The Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister and acting District Chief Executive (DCE) for the area, Mr Osei-Assibey Antwi, made this known at Jacobu.
He said the assembly was also sponsoring 310 untrained teachers to upgrade their academic and professional qualifications under the Untrained Teacher Training Diploma in Basic Education (UTTBE) programme.
Mr Osei-Assibey, who was speaking at the 2007 Annual Basic Schools Awards ceremony at Jacobu, said the Assembly had put up 38 classrooms in various communities over the last three years.
School children who distinguished themselves in their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), as well as schools that exhibited remarkable performance the previous year, were awarded for their efforts.
Prizes amounting to over GH¢2,000 were awarded to deserving pupils, who excelled in the 2007 BECE, as well as schools that achieved academic excellence.
Master Clement Yaw Kyei of the Jacobu Roman Catholic Junior High School was adjudged the best student in the BECE while Master Kyei Baffour of Tweapease Junior High School was selected as the best student in Mathematics.
Mr Osei-Assibey commended the pupils and schools that won prizes for their outstanding performance and expressed the hope that the awards would spur them on to perform even better in the coming years.
He said education was the main key to unlocking poverty, ignorance and disease that continued to be the enemies of development.
Consequently, he called on parents to do well to take the education of their children very seriously.
The deputy regional minister said the government would continue to come up with policies and programmes that would move education forward.
The Member of Parliament for Odotobri, Mr Akwasi Gyamfi, expressed concern about the deplorable state of accommodation for some teachers in the communities, and said the assembly was making efforts to address the situation.
He stated that the excellent academic performance of the district in the 2007 BECE would be meaningless if parents refused to educate their children.
The District Director of Education, Mrs T. Appiah-Nkansah, said the district placed third with a mean score of 86.72 per cent in the 2007 BECE, making it second in the national ranking and second in the Ashanti Region.
She stressed the need for teachers and parents to inculcate reading habits in the children because the benefits were enormous.

Woodworkers Association to embark on afforestation

Story: Kwame Asare Boadu, Kumasi
13/03/08MEMBERS of the Ashanti Regional branch of the Woodworkers Association of Ghana (WAG) have decided to embark on afforestation to address the threat of unavailability of lumber for making furniture on the local market.
Fears of shortage of lumber on the local market in the not too distant future have been lingering on the minds of woodworkers operating in the region.
Consequently, the association has for some time now been devising ways to counter the threat before their business collapses.
A survey carried out by the association as part of its advocacy programme sponsored by the BUSAC Fund, recommended that the small-scale furniture makers must go into forest plantation as a long-term solution to the problem of wood shortage.
At a news conference in Kumasi, the association appealed to the Timber Industry Development Division (TIDD) of the Forestry Commission (FC) to come up with a programme that would feed their members with the necessary information on plantation development to enable them to meet their objective.
Addressing journalists, the Regional Chairman of the association, Mr Reynolds A. Debrah, said they had officially submitted their recommendations to the TIDD and expressed the hope that something positive would come up.
He said they were consulting with the FC for parts of the degraded forests to be allocated to them for the plantation projects.
Mr Debrah said the association was very concerned about their future, stressing that any shortage of wood would collapse their industry.
He stressed the need for the association to find ways of generating greater interest and support,“ so that we all can contribute our quota in the regeneration of our depleted forests”.
The regional chairman said the association decided to encourage individual members to undertake the project on personal basis since it was possible to arrange for allocation of part of the forest plantations.
Mr Debrah also appealed to the government to speed up work on the establishment of the Sokoban Wood Village for carpenters at Anloga Junction to move there to enable the reconstruction of the Kumasi Ring Road to kick off.

Asanteman Council to resolve 2 chieftaincy disputes

Story: Kwame Asare Boadu, Kumasi
11/03/08
THE Asanteman Council has taken a major step to resolve two protracted chieftaincy disputes at Goaso and Mim, two traditional areas in the Brong Ahafo Region.
The Goaso chieftaincy dispute started after the abdication of the former Omanhene, Krotwiamansa Adjei Ampofo, in 2000, while that of Mim reared its head after the death of the Omanhene, Nana Kwaku Appiah, some 20 years ago.
At a meeting of the council at the Manhyia Palace in Kumasi, attended by paramount chiefs from the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions, the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, emphasised that it was only the Abusuapanin of the Goaso Royal Family, Opanin Yaw Barima, who had the authority to nominate a candidate to occupy the vacant stool.
Consequently, he asked Opanin Barima to “immediately” select one qualified person from the family and, together with the Queen, Nana Yaa Akyaa, present the nominee to him on April 10, 2008 to enable the nominee to swear the oath of allegiance to him.
With regard to the Mim dispute, where two chiefs are claiming the stool, Otumfuo Osei Tutu asked the two claimants to reappear before the council on April 10, 2008 to justify their rights to the stool.
The two chiefs in the dispute are Okofrobour Dr Yaw Agyei II, a retired associate professor in aeronautic engineering in the United States, and Nana Appiah Kusi Brempong, a businessman in Kumasi.
The Goaso chieftaincy dispute, which has lasted for about eight years, started when the last Omanhene, Krotwiamansa Adjei Ampofo, abdicated the stool.
Since then, the Abusuapanin and the queen have been engaged in a bitter conflict with either of them claiming to have the right to elect a successor to Nana Ampofo.
At the meeting at Manhyia, the Asantehene rejected the person the Queen of Goaso proposed to the Abusuapanin for consideration as the next Omanhene.
Instead, Otumfuo indicated that it was the Abusuapanin who, in that matter, had the right to select the nominee and present the person to the queen for onward swearing in at Manhyia.
The Asantehene said Goaso and Mim were under his authority and that he would make sure that peace was restored to the two areas to ensure accelerated development.
He asked the various factions in the disputes to remain calm and wait for the Asanteman Council to take the final decision, which would restore peace to their communities.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Ashanti Police hunt for suspected murderer

Story: Kwame Asare Boadu, K’si
March12, 2008

THE Ashanti Regional Police are hunting for a middle-aged farmer at Nyinahin who shot and killed his wife on suspicion of adultery.
According to the police, the suspect, Yaw Tawiah, ambushed the woman, identified as Abena Lucy, near a stream on a farm and shot her in cold blood.
He then fled through the bush and has since not been seen.
Family sources said the two got married about four years ago after the first marriage of the woman had broken down.
For some time, Tawiah had been accusing the woman of infidelity even though she had denied the allegation on countless occasions.
The sources said last Monday, as Lucy was going to the farm, Tawiah hid near a stream and immediately the woman got to the spot, he opened fire killing her instantly.
People who got to the scene raised alarm but all attempts to get the man have since proved futile.
The remains of the deceased have been deposited at the morgue while police investigations continue.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

MP for Bantama commended

Story: Kwame Asare
Boadu, Kumasi
06/03/08

THE Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Robert Amankwah, has commended the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bantama, Madam Cecilia Abena Dapaah, for the phenomenal development she has brought to her constituency in the relatively short period of three years.
He said Bantama, which could be described as the “eye of Kumasi”, had undergone many changes in its development process within the last few years that Madam Dapaah had been the MP and emphasised that that had justified the reason the people in the constituency voted massively for her in the 2004 elections.
Mr Amankwah stated this at a reception the MP organised for her constituents at the Kumasi Lebanon Club at Bantama.
The reception was attended by chiefs, opinion leaders, political party representatives and residents of the constituency.
Mr Amankwah stated that as one of the few female MPs from the Ashanti Region, Madam Dapaah had demonstrated the fact that many women had the ability to perform when given the opportunity.
The regional chairman called for unity in the party as nominations opened for the NPP parliamentary primaries, saying that the NPP thrived on its democratic principles, which were the envy of the opposition, and stressed that that must show in the primaries.
For her part, Madam Dapaah, who is also a Minister of State at the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, pledged that she would continue to serve the constituency in all humility and with hard work, stressing that her second term as MP would see accelerated development in the community.
She commended the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, for holding Kumasi and Asanteman together to fight for development.
Madam Dapaah also thanked the constituency executive of the NPP and the entire residents for their co-operation and hard work over the years which had brought them that far.
She said it was refreshing that the NPP came out of its national delegates conference even stronger, with Nana Akufo-Addo as the presidential candidate, and added that together the party would work to retain power.
Present at the reception was the Constituency Chairman of the NPP, Mr H.K. Kokofu, and his executive.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

EC TO REPLACE LOST, DAMAGED ID CARDS (PAGE 13)

STORY: Kwame Asare Boadu

THE Electoral Commission (EC) will replace lost, defaced or badly damaged voter identity (ID) cards between March 14 and March 23, 2008.
The exercise, which would be conducted between 7am and 6pm daily, will ensure that such registered voters did not make any attempt to register again.
A statement signed by the acting Director of Public Affairs of the EC, Mr Samuel Yorke Aidoo, stated that each electoral area would have at least one replacement centre.
According to the EC, it would announce the location of the replacement centres at the local levels.
“The statement asked all prospective voters who had lost, defaced or badly damaged their voter ID cards to appear personally at the replacement centre and provide their personal data to the replacement officer.
It said it was a punishable offence to do double registration, and, therefore, urged people who had lost or destroyed their voter ID cards to take advantage of the opportunity of the exercise to have their cards replaced.
Affected registered voters who lived outside the district where they originally registered would report to the designated replacement centre in the electoral area of the district in which they currently resided and applied for replacement.
“There is no need to travel to their original district of registration to apply,” the statement said and added that, “this arrangement does not constitute a transfer of vote.”
The EC indicated that it would later make arrangements for voters who had moved residence to transfer their votes to enable them vote where they currently resided.
It called for the maximum co-operation of all affected persons to make the exercise a success.
All enquiries, the commission said, should be directed to the officers of the commission at the district, regional and national levels.

I WISH ELECTIONS WERE HELD TODAY — NANA ADDO (PAGE 14)

Story: Kwame Asare Boadu, Kumasi

LOOKING at the crowd of New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters that turned up at the forecourt of the Prempeh Assembly Hall in Kumasi on Thursday afternoon to welcome him to Kumasi, the NPP Presidential Candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, declared, “I wish the elections were held today.”
Bubbling with confidence, he told the enthusiastic crowd that “President John Agyekum Kufuor would hand over to him on January 7, 2009 as the next President of the country”.
He, however, charged the cheering gathering to continue to work very hard to ensure that “we win the elections massively on December 7”. The rally was organised to thank the party members in the Ashanti Region for voting him to become the presidential candidate for the party.
His speech, which lasted for just about 15 minutes, was pregnant with words of appreciation and optimism, and as he left the podium, he had a hectic time going through the crowd to board his car as the party supporters moved forward in a bid to shake hands with him.
Almost all the former aspirants who contested with Nana Akufo-Addo in the NPP national delegates conference were around to lend their support to their candidate.
They included Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, Dr K.K. Apraku, Dr Arthur Kennedy, Dr Kwame Addo Kufuor and Prof., Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, Mr Kwabena Agyepong and Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey.
Nana Akufo-Addo, who earlier paraded through some of the principal streets of Kumasi in an open top vehicle, said the presence of the former aspirants was a clear indication that the party was united and ready to continue handling the affairs of the nation.
He said while the National Democratic Congress (NDC) continued to use insults as its main weapon, the NPP would use its track record to carry the day.
“The NDC says this year is for them. Do they want to tell us we are not going to take part in the voting?” Nana Akufo-Addo asked.
Nana Akufo-Addo indicated that the achievements recorded by the NPP government under President Kufuor surpassed those of other governments in the country.
He pointed out that the December election was about the future of the country, and, therefore, asked the people to take the upcoming voter registration exercise very seriously, so that they could cast their votes for him and the NPP to continue with the progressive policies and programmes.
He said he was proud of the Ashanti Region as a pillar behind the party and said, “I will not disappoint you when I become President.”
The Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr E.A. Owusu-Ansah, commended the people of Kumasi for their impressive turn out at the rally, and said it once again proved that “we in Ashanti would never turn against the NPP”.
The National Chairman of the party, Mr Peter Mac Manu, reminded the party faithful that the forthcoming primaries to elect parliamentary candidates for the party were very important in the party’s quest to retain power.
He, therefore, charged the rank and file of the party to make the exercise peaceful to maintain and build on the party’s democratic credentials.
He stated that the elections of parliamentary candidates would be completed by the end of May.
All the former aspirants also spoke at the rally and pledged that they were united behind their candidate, whom they described as God-sent.