DCOP ADU POKU DENIES LINK WITH OSEI-WUSU (PAGE 13)

THE Director-General of Police in charge of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Frank Adu-Poku, has asked politicians to leave him out of the politics of the Bekwai Constituency in the Ashanti Region.
He expressed regret at moves by some people within the NPP in the region to link him to the camp of the Independent Candidate for Bekwai, Mr Joe Osei-Wusu.
"I respect my office and I cannot stoop that low by joining forces with Mr Joe Osei-Wusu to fight his political cause," he told the Daily Graphic from his base in Accra.
He said he had not associated himself with even the candidate of the ruling government, and asked how he could move to join the independent candidate.
He noted that those who were spreading the lies would only be doing it for some sinister motives.
DCOP Adu-Poku said even though he is a citizen of Bekwai, he had decided to stay clear of the politics going on in the area because of his position as a serving officer.
"I occupy a very important position in the Police Service and my duty is to serve my nation and not a politician who is looking for political power", he said.
He cautioned people who only wanted to run down innocent and hardworking people in order to gain some favours elsewhere to desist from that behaviour.
He recalled the disturbances that took place at Bekwai as a result of the demonstration by supporters of Mr Osei-Wusu and questioned how he could support people to cause mayhem in his own area.
He reminded those who were moving to spoil his name that one day they would be exposed.
Mr Adu-Poku pointed out that Bekwai deserved better and not politics that would draw back the development of the area.

CHIEF SWEARS OATH OF ALLEGIANCE TO NKORANZAHENE (PAGE 23)

THE Anafoohene of Nkwabeng-Nkoranza in the Brong Ahafo Region, Nana Appiah Kodom II, has sworn the oath of allegiance to the Omanhene of the Nkoranza Traditional Area, Okatakyie Agyemang Kodom, to legitimise his enstoolment in line with the customs and tradition of the area.
The ceremony at which the rich traditions of the people of Nkoranza were on display was attended by a large number of people.
Nana Kodom, known in private life as Ernest Baffoe Gyau, was a former student of the Acherensua Secondary School. He now resides in the United States of America.
At the ceremony, Nana Kodom gave a pledge to support the development of his area and the entire traditional area.
He admitted the development challenges confronting the area, but said with a united front, they could overcome them.
The Anafoohene said even though he lived outside the country, his aura was firmly on the ground in his native area and that he would promptly respond to anything that demanded his support.
For his part, the Nkoranzahene, Okatakyie Kodom, advised the Anafoohene to be prepared to serve the paramount stool at all times.
He noted that chieftaincy today was not about wearing beautiful cloths and riding in a palanquin but how one could galvanise his people for development.
The Nkoranzahene said education was one area of great concern to him and advised his people to help improve standards.

TRUST EXTENDS YOUTH APPRENTICE PROGRAMMED TO OFFINSO (PAGE 39)

Thirty people in the Offinso Municipality have benefited from the first phase of the Sinapi Aba Trust’s (SAT) youth apprenticeship programme which has been extended to the Ashanti Region.
Under the programme, which also has a health component that emphasises the prevention of HIV/AIDS, SAT will support the beneficiaries with training tools and other services to enable them to complete their apprenticeship.
On completion, the trust would assist them with start-up capital, where necessary, to enable them to start their businesses.
The programme, which was piloted in Kumasi in 2004, was replicated in Accra a year later.
With the successful results in those initial stages, the programme is now being implemented in seven districts and municipalities in the country and a ceremony has been held at Offinso where the SAT presented training tools valued at GH¢2,600.95 to the beneficiaries in the municipality.
The trainees were hairdressers, dressmakers, carpenters, auto mechanics, auto electricians, bakers and shoe makers.
In a speech read on behalf of the Chief Executive of the trust, Mr Anthony Gyasi-Fosu, the Chaplain of SAT, Elder Kwame Opoku, emphasised the importance his establishment attached to youth employment.
He said SAT was determined to commit more resources to that sector so that the youth could get themselves into gainful employment.
Mr Gyasi-Fosu noted that the problem of unemployment was a real challenge to the development of young people in the country and it was clear that the government alone could not address the challenges.
He noted that the inability of most young people to earn a living and be economically independent tended to increase their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and social vices like excessive drinking, smoking and prostitution, among others.
Mr Gyasi-Fosu said it was against that backdrop that his organisation, with support from its development partner, Opportunities International, introduced the youth employment programme to complement the efforts of the government in addressing the situation.
He appealed to the Offinso Municipal Assembly to support the organisations in extending the programme to more people.
The Programmes Co-ordinator of SAT, Mr Thomas Appiah-Mensah, advised the trainees and the other stakeholders to be committed to their roles and responsibilities in the programme.
He told the trade masters that the attendance registers of the trainees and their conduct assessment forms given to the trade masters to work on were very relevant as they would assist the management of the programme to take some useful decisions concerning the trainees.
The Amoawihene, Nana Duodu Frimpong, who represented the Offinsohene, Nana Wiafe Akenten, commended SAT for its initiative and expressed the hope that the trainees would attach great importance to the programme.

POLICEMAN SHOT DEAD (PAGE 21)

A POLICEMAN in the company of some chainsaw operators has been shot to death in the Bonsambepo Forest Reserve at Kyenkyensibuosu in the Asunafo North Municipality in the Brong Ahafo Region.
The deceased, Sergeant James Kofi Nimoh, 53, station officer of the Asumura Police Station, died on the spot after a bullet from a gun allegedly fired by a forest guard hit his midsection.
Two people said to be guards at the reserve have been placed in police custody at Goaso pending further investigations. Their identities were not immediately known.
A source at Goaso told the Daily Graphic that the body of the policeman had been deposited at the Goaso Government Hospital.
According to the source, Sergeant Nimoh entered the forest reserve with the illegal operators at about 10 p.m. last Tuesday, and they used five trucks in their operations.
According to the source, upon a tip-off, the concession guards, who lived in the vicinity, also went to the operation area to confront the operators.
When they got there, one of the trucks had already been loaded while the others were waiting for their turn.
The source said a heated argument ensued between the guards and the operators as they (the guards) attempted to force them to abandon their operations.
Sergeant Nimoh was said to have engaged in a scuffle with the armed guards and in the course of the confusion, a gun belonging to one of the guards went off, killing the policeman instantly.
As the policeman fell, the chainsaw operators escaped with their vehicles.
When the Daily Graphic contacted the Municipal Police Commander, DSP Daniel Afugu on telephone from his base at Goaso, he confirmed the incident but declined to give further details.
He said the police were investigating the incident and he was therefore in no position to make further comments.

DEMOLITION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY BEGINS AT ASOKWA (PAGE 29)

Demolishion of private properties has begun at Asokwa to pave way for the construction of the Anloga-Asokwa (Timber Gardens) bypass in Kumasi.
When the Daily Graphic team went to Asokwa last weekend they saw a bulldozer briskly demolishing some of the properties which were along the area where the bypass is to be constructed.
The Anloga- Asokwa bypass project is being jointly funded by the government and international donors to improve upon the road network as well as ease traffic congestion in Kumasi.
Woodworkers at Anloga have been asked to relocate to the Sokoban Wood Village but recently some carpenters at the area have vowed to resist attempts by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) to relocate them at the village until certain conditions are met.
Calling themselves the Concerned Carpenters of Anloga, they said unless the authorities did the right thing to facilitate the operations of all affected carpenters, they would not move from their present site.
But the Metropolitan Urban Roads Engineer, Mr James Amoo-Gottfried, said nothing would stop the authorities from strictly enforcing the timetable for the relocation of the carpenters at Sokoban this week.
The KMA Chief Executive, Ms Patricia Appiagyei, last week announced that the movement to the new site would commence this week.
She said work at the Wood Village was almost complete for occupation and urged the carpenters to comply with the order to move there and pave the way for the construction of the Oforikrom Junction-Asokwa bypass.
Reacting to the order in a protest note to the KMA Chief Executive, the Concerned Anloga Carpenters claimed that the authorities had not done much to facilitate their smooth movement to the new place.
Following the government's decision to reconstruct the Oforikrom Junction-Asokwa bypass, the Department of Urban Roads decided on the Sokoban Village to relocate the Anloga carpenters.
Consequently, the construction of the Sokoban Wood Village was factored into the road project and undertaken with funds from the Agence Francaise de Developement (AFD). Under that project, a number of facilities were constructed at the village to improve conditions there for the carpenters to move in.
In their protest, the concerned carpenters claimed that not all carpenters who were being asked to leave their current places had been provided for at the Sokoban Village.
According to them, only 300 out of over 1,500 members of the Anloga Woodworkers Association had been provided places at the Sokoban Village.
They contended that more than 1,200 others called "master-boys" had been left out, yet they were being asked to leave their places at Anloga.
The master-boys are those who have completed their apprenticeship programmes and who, even though are masters, are working in the shops of their former master craftsmen.
According to the concerned carpenters, any attempt to deny the master-boys a place to work will mean throwing them out of work.
Again, they complained that nothing had been done about an earlier decision by the government to pay them some amount of money to convey their tools and equipment from their workshops to the Sokoban Village.
Commenting further on the situation, Mr Amoo-Gottfried said the Oforikrom Junction–Asokwa bypass was one road which had necessitated the relocation of the Anloga carpenters and was being carried out within a time frame which should not be derailed.
He confirmed that not all the carpenters at Anloga had been catered for at the Sokoban village, explaining that even some of the master craftsmen could not be allocated sheds at the village and that only those whose activities were affected by the road design had been provided places.
The metropolitan engineer stated that the relocation was part of the compensation for the affected carpenters and that it would be wrong for any group of carpenters to force the KMA to find a place for them at the wood village.

WOMEN URGED TO SUPPORT AKUFO-ADDO (PAGE 16)

THE Ashanti Regional Women’s Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mrs Mary Brobbey, has called on women to throw their weight behind the NPP’s presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, saying he was the only presidential candidate to have demonstrated that women’s interests would be better served under his presidency.
She said Nana Akufo-Addo had persistently driven home his vision to build on what President Kufuor had done for women, noting that that was a clear manifestation of his love for improving the lives of women.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Kumasi, Mrs Brobbey cautioned women against giving their votes to people who had been silent about women’s issues.
“We cannot afford to go back to the dark days when very few women who were connected to the government benefited from national programmes and projects,” she said.
Mrs Brobbey expressed regret that the NDC continued to hold itself as a women-centred party when, in fact, its presidential candidate, Prof Mills, had not articulated any meaningful vision on women in his campaigns.
“Today, many women, notwithstanding their political affiliations, are enjoying various micro-credit and other laudable facilities by the government and we can only reciprocate this gesture by voting massively for Nana Akufo-Addo,” she said.
The regional women’s organiser said the NPP presidential candidate had shown clearly that he was a man of peace.
“It is, therefore, important that we rally behind him to win the presidency so that we can advance our interests,” she noted.
Mrs Brobbey called on supporters of all political parties to avoid acts that would jeopardise the peace of the nation, saying that Ghana needed to demonstrate to the rest of the world that “our democracy has come of age”.
She discounted claims by opponents of the government that there were serious difficulties in the nation.
According to her, at a time when even the so-called advanced countries were going through economic difficulty, the NPP government had been able to position itself to absorb the global economic shocks.
Mrs Brobbey said her outfit was embarking on “an aggressive” campaign to get more women to vote for the NPP in the December elections.

PICTURE. Mrs Mary Brobbey, Ashanti Regional Women’s Organiser

MAN DROPS DEAD ...While jogging (MIRROR, LEAD STORY)

THE decision by a 38-year-old mechanic in Kumasi to trot from his house to the Baba Yara Stadium to join his colleagues for Keep Fit activities last Sunday ended on a sad note when he fell and died on the way.
Sources close to his Keep Fit Club told The • Continued from page 1

Mirror that the deceased, Kofi Dwumfuor, died on the spot after he fell at the shoulder of the road at Dakodwom, a suburb of Kumasi.
And had it not been his mobile phone, which kept ringing without any response, no one would have known the man was dead.
His body had been deposited at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.
According to the sources, it was characteristic of Dwumfuor to drive from his house at Kwadaso to the Baba Yara Stadium, a distance of about six kilometres, for Keep Fit activities every Sunday.
However, last Sunday, he decided to change the practice by running to the stadium.
Dwumfuor, according to the sources, left his house at about 5.30 a.m for the stadium without any signs of illness.
On reaching Dakodwom, a little over half of the distance to the stadium, Dwumfuor started beating his chest and fell by the road side.
Unfortunately, no one went to his aid until his mobile phone, which was in his pocket, started ringing without any response from him. The calls were from his colleagues who were calling to find out why he had delayed .
The sources stated that as the phone kept ringing, some of the people tried to find out what had happened only to realise that there was no life in the man.
They rushed him to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital where he was pronounced dead.