STANFORD SEED PROGRAMME HELD IN ACCRA

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

Thursday, March 10, 2016

The 5^th Commencement of the Stanford Seed Transformation Programme aimed at ending the cycle of poverty in developing economies was held in Accra last Friday.

The Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies, (Stanford Seed) has been established through the generosity of Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni, Robert King and the wife Dottie King.

The Seed's integrated approach addresses multiple fronts across multiple time horizons.

Under the programme, coordinators have initiated what they called “in-country efforts to help scale high-potential enterprises and create jobs.”

It was designed and led by the Stanford faculty with the support of some local faculty instructors.

The programme will offer general management training, hands on workshops and networking opportunities to established African SMEs with high growth potential.

Reverend Emmanuel Kitcher, Regional Manager for the SEED Programme, said the initiative is inspiring Stanford students to become “globally-engaged leaders, and supporting critical research from across the university to maximize our impact.

“It is said that if the companies founded by Stanford graduates since 1930 were an independent nation, it would be the 10^th largest economy in the world,” he said, adding that the programme has brought “innovative mindset and practical business training to entrepreneurs in Africa by establishing its first footprint in Accra in July 2013 to serve the West Africa sub-region.”

“Since July 2013, over 110 CEOs and founders of various SME’s from Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ghana have participated in the programme.

“A distinguishing aspect of the programme is the presence on the ground of Seed Volunteer business coaches, who are assigned to the participating companies in the programme,” he added.

He also introduced the high-profile instructors to the audience.

“We are already seeing some of these companies expand their operations even into the USA. Finally a number of these companies that used to walk alone are beginning to collaborate with other companies and beginning to embrace the idea of opening up their businesses to other investors, particularly private equity.”

Rev. Kitcher also said that “with 85% of the world’s population growth coming from emerging nations, how are we going to create sustainable jobs to absorb the large young workforce?”

 “In Ghana for example, SMEs provide about 85% of the manufacturing employment and account for 90% of existing businesses in the country, contributing to 70% of the country’s GDP.”

Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, an accomplished entrepreneur and politician, who was the guest speaker, said businesses can only grow through determination and hard work.

He advised those willing to start businesses to learn the hard way and make efforts to explore untapped areas.

APAU REWARDED FOR NANA JOB

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, March 08, 2016

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has made a sensational claim that Judgement Debt Sole-Commissioner, Justice Yaw Apau, was appointed to the Supreme Court by President John Mahama because of the ‘hatchet’ job he did for the government on its (NPP’s) flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

According to the NPP, the ruling NDC, led by its General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia, was hiding behind the Judgement Debt Commission Report prepared by Justice Apau to make Nana Akufo-Addo look like a corrupt man when he is not.

An open challenge is being thrown at Justice Apau to come public over the allegation that he did a dirty job for the government in exchange for a reward.

The NPP gurus have therefore dared the government to arrest and prosecute the former Attorney General (Nana Addo) if indeed there was any evidence linking him to the sale of the drillship Discoverer 511 which happened during the Kufuor administration.

“Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP as a party are tired of the deliberate attempts by the NDC and their agents to tag the man as a corrupt person,” Acting General Secretary John Boadu said at a news conference last Friday.

“Arrest Nana Addo and prosecute him if it’s not just propaganda you are doing with the drill ship saga,” John Boadu said, insisting that “Asiedu Nketia’s misguided and erroneous reference to Nana Akufo-Addo’s alleged incompetence is borne out of the usual ignorance and/or deliberate attempts to mislead the public,” he said.

When the Sole Commissioner after investigating the various judgement debts submitted his report to the presidency, it emerged that sections of the report had been purportedly doctored.

The said doctored portion of the report concerned Nana Akufo-Addo, whom the Sole-Commissioner was said to have made adverse findings against in the drill Ship Discoverer 511 which was sold in 2001 to defray debts incurred by Tsatsu Tsikata when he was the Chief Executive of the state-run Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).

The drill ship was disposed off by the Kufuor administration to defray a $19.5 million judgment debt owed Societe-General Bank and the Sole-Commissioner reportedly concluded that Nana Akufo-Addo’s “miserable” failure to defend the state in a London court led to a judgment debt higher than what Ghana would have paid.

“This Commission holds the view that the payment of $19.5 million instead of the $14 million agreed on earlier, constituted financial loss to the Corporation and Ghana,” the leaked report claimed at the time.

Strangely, Justice Apau had made the adverse finding even though he never invited Nana Akufo-Addo to hear his side of the drill ship saga which took a greater portion of the commission’s sitting, despite the fact that the NPP flagbearer was on record to have volunteered to testify in the matter. No reason was given by Justice Apau ignoring Nana Addo’s open request to the commission.

In another twist, DAILY GUIDE’s sources had hinted that “a lot of what is in the report is not in the official copy presented to the presidency.

“Some of the phraseology and words used in the leaked report are not in the official report and it seems clear that NDC propaganda is at work.”

According to the source, “There is no ‘miserable failure’ among others in the report as it appears” adding, “clearly this has been done by some people in authority for political propaganda purposes.”

The source said that two things stood out and remain relevant in the report and one was that the Sole-Commissioner did clearly state unequivocally that he could not question the decisions of the AG‎ in the matter.

However, the source added that the judge had gone on to say that the failure to attend court in London led to SG obtaining the default judgment.

According to the source, the report appeared to have made ‘a leap’ to say that SG obtaining the default judgment led to a settlement of $19.5 million instead of $14 million and therefore, occasioned financial loss.

WE GOOFED! ISD ACCEPTS BLAME FOR ERRORS

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, March 08, 2016

The Information Services Department (ISD) says it has accepted responsibility for the error-laden brochure used for the 59^th Independence Day parade in Accra last Sunday, March 6, which depicted the Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, as President of Ghana.

The event brochure distributed at the Black Star Square was full of poor grammar, awful spelling, badly constructed sentences, as well as shocking colloquial expressions with the description of the green colour in the national flag as ‘dark green.’

 “The Information Services Department (ISD) wishes on behalf of the National Planning Committee of the 59th Independence Anniversary Planning Committee to apologise for the misrepresentations in the Event Brochure of the impressive 59th Independence Day Parade at the Black Star Square.

“The Department, which authored the content of the brochure, accepts responsibility and wishes to unreservedly apologise for the development,” Francis Kwarteng Arthur, Acting Director of ISD, expressed in a statement issued yesterday which has its own problem with date.

The letter, which was supposed to have been written yesterday, has January 12, 2016 on it and Felix Kwakye Ofosu, a deputy Minister of Communications, had to apologise for the error.

Ghana undoubtedly became a laughing stock after a series of blunders were spotted in the brochures used for the national parade.

Reading through the brochure carefully, ‘Coat of Arms’ was spelt ‘Coat of Arm.’

Others like ‘Globalised Sky,’ ‘youthfull,’ and ‘As if by divine-designed’ featured prominently in the brochure.

In the Table of Content, the brochure embarrassingly referred to Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta as President of Ghana and misspelled ‘Kinbu Senior High Technical School’ as ‘Kimbu Senior High Technical School.’

As if that was not enough, the author of the brochure embarrassingly struggled to string words together to make sense, while the information in it was ambiguous and unreliable.

The Ghana-Kenya relations article was poorly written while the bit describing the location of Ghana on the globe appeared disjointed.

Yesterday, an apology issued by the department was wrongly dated but was quickly corrected when attention was drawn to it.

Stan Dogbe Pops Out

In a related development, it emerged that it was presidential staffer and head of Communications at the Flagstaff House, Stan Dogbe, who was responsible for the brochure.

According to Joy FM’s Manasseh Azure Awuni, the Chairman of the 59th Independence Anniversary Planning Committee, Commodore Steve Obimpeh, had asked him to direct his questions surrounding the errors in the official anniversary brochure to Stan Dogbe because he was “responsible for the brochure.”

“This morning, I called someone who works closely with the Flagstaff House and asked for contacts to members of the planning committee. My source said Commodore Steve Obimpeh chaired the 59th Independence Anniversary Planning Committee. When I called Obimpeh and asked to speak to him on the error-ridden brochure, he said: ‘Speak to Stan Dogbe. Speak to Stan Dogbe; he was responsible for the brochure.’

“He ended the call before I had time to ask further questions,” Manasseh narrated.

“When I called Stan Dogbe at 12:59 pm, he did not answer my calls. At 1:05 pm, I sent him a message on WhatsApp and told him what Obimpeh had told me and that I wanted explanation. Even though he read the message, and the application showed he was ‘online,’ he did not reply.

“At 1:52 pm, I sent a reminder, ‘Hi, Stan.’ WhatsApp again showed that he read the message but did not respond. He has still not responded at the time of posting this article (5:03 pm),” Manasseh concluded.

Cost

H. Kwasi Prempeh, a law professor based in the United Sates, was wondering how much money was spent to prepare for the shoddy job.

“So how much did it cost us to commission someone to write and edit this anniversary booklet? Who wrote this piece of crap? Poor grammar, poor spelling, bad geography and on and on and on. A shamefully mediocre job, all over,” he lamented in a facebook post.

 Prof Prempeh is just one of many Ghanaians who have taken to social media to express their disappointments about the event brochure.

“How many stages of review, if any, did it go through before it went to press? …I would happily have edited this damn thing for them pro bono, as my patriotic contribution to the day's celebration. If you're going to sole-source the gig to your cronies and partisans, as is your standard operating procedure, make sure, at least, that they are competent and can do a top-notch job. I guess you choose writers and editors for these jobs the same way you choose DCEs and some Ministers and Deputy Ministers: Competence not required! This is a national disgrace,” he stated.

NDC GROUP WANTS RAWLINGS GIRL OUT

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, March 08, 2016

A group calling itself Klottey Korle Grassroots Supporters Network of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) is putting a lot of pressure on Dr. Zenator A. Rawlings, daughter of Ex-President J.J. Rawlings, to step aside as the party’s parliamentary candidate in the constituency for the November general election.

According to the members, Dr Rawlings has been found not to be duly registered by the Electoral Commission (EC) and therefore did not qualify to contest on the ticket of the party during the primary last year.

A statement issued in Accra and signed by one Nana Kwesi Aburam-Korankye, the convener of the group, also said that they were reliably informed that plans were being hatched to indefinitely suspend the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP), Nii Armah Ashietey, and one Nii John Coleman from the party to pave way for Zenator Rawlings to proceed with her parliamentary ambition undisturbed.

“They are planning to suspend Hon. Nii Armah Ashietey and Nii John Coleman so that after the EC opens the register for the limited registration in April, our sister will register and the situation will be manipulated for her to go unopposed.

“We assure those planning this that…..this is the great NDC built on accountability, probity and transparency,” the group cautioned.

“Our founder is the great Jerry John Rawlings. He definitely and certainly will not orchestrate or allow persons to orchestrate the victimization of innocent party warriors who have toiled for this party, simply to allow his ineligible daughter to run for Klottey Korle,” they added.

“We are disappointed in the national, regional and constituency executives of our party who presided over their mandated task of vetting persons who were interested in representing our party in this year's general election and allowed Zanetor Agyeman Rawlings whom they ought to have known right from the start did not qualify per the rules of the party, the constitution of the party, and the Constitution of Ghana, to contest the November NDC parliamentary primary.”

They insisted that “it is this lapse that has dragged the name of our party into disrepute and today, our party is being discussed in the media in a negative light.”

Members of the Klottey Korle Grassroots Supporters Network claimed they sighted the letter from the Electoral Commission which revealed that Zanetor Agyeman Rawlings is not a registered voter on the Electoral Commission's National Voter Register.

“This news does not surprise some of us since we have, from the very beginning, tried to draw the attention of our party's structures to the ineligibility of Zanetor Rawlings to run on our ticket for parliament.

“We had our own reservations, and even petitioned the founder of our party who happens to be the father of Zanetor Rawlings to call our sister, his daughter, to order and convince her to step down from her overzealous ambition of running for parliament when she did not qualify per the rules of the party and the country.

“There were other attempts by other members of our party in the constituency to correct the wrong Zanetor's candidature posed to the fortunes of the party in the constituency, yet all of these good-faith attempts to save the image of our party and that of our sister from ridicule unfortunately fell on deaf ears,” the group recalled.

They claimed that Zanetor Agyeman Rawlings deceived the people of Klottey Korle, the NDC and the entire country when she knew that she was unqualified to run for parliament yet “went ahead and picked nomination forms, went through the vetting process, initiated a campaign and actually contested for the NDC parliamentary primary last November,” adding “our dear party and our sister Zanetor will clearly be further embarrassed if she is not called to order.”

The group is demanding “unqualified apology from Zanetor Agyeman Rawlings to the party, the other contestants and the electorate in Klottey Korle, for taking all of us for granted and wasting our time.” 

GHANA IN CRISIS SAYS AKUFO-ADDO

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Monday, March 7, 2016

New Patriotic Party (NPP) 2016 presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, says the widespread despondency among Ghanaians shows clearly that Ghana is in a crisis.

In a message on behalf of the party to mark Ghana’s 59^th independence anniversary celebrations, Nana Akufo-Addo said Ghana has been blessed with abundant human and natural resources, but most of the people continue to wallow in abject poverty due to mismanagement by the government.

“It is unfortunate, however, that 59 years after gaining our independence, Ghana, a country blessed with an abundance of human and natural resources, is in a crisis – evidenced in widespread despondency, brought about by severe hardships, rising cost of living, high levels of youth unemployment, collapsed businesses, unprecedented strikes, demonstrations and increasing poverty.

He added that “surely, this is not the vision of Ghana our ancestors had hoped for.”

The NPP leader said that “it is critical that we take stock of what we have done with our freedom, and where we are now as a nation,” adding, “Our forebears who fought to liberate us from colonial rule believed that freedom is the primary end, as well as the means to development, with the well-being of each and every individual as both the goal and means of development.”

Hope Coming

He urged Ghanaians not to “despair and lose hope in the ability of our nation to offer her citizens a decent livelihood. Let us stride into the future confident that we will make it if we work at it.”

Nana Akufo-Addo continued…“I am confident that we can transform our nation and use all the blessings that the Almighty has bestowed on us to bring prosperity to all our people. We can do it. God did not put us on this rich land to be poor. It is bad leadership that makes us poor.”

“Let us believe in Ghana and do what is right by our nation, and thereby fulfill the dreams and aspirations of those far-sighted individuals who initiated the steps for our national freedom and independence.

Level-Playing Field

He called for a level-playing field in the November general election, saying, “That is the best guarantee of the peace, stability and democracy of our country. As we head to the polls in this election year, it is important that we all work together with our public institutions to ensure that we have a level electoral playing field. We want free, fair and credible elections whose outcome will be readily accepted by all.”

AMIDU OPPOSES PHONE TAPPING LAW

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday, 04 March 2016

Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Martin A.B.K. Amidu, has waded into the controversial phone tapping Bill currently before parliament and called on the leadership of the house not to pass it into law in its current form.

 “My perusal of the Bill led me to the conclusion that it has the tendency to interfere with the fundamental human rights and freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution and needs a critical bi-partisan examination and analysis to ensure that it secures civil liberties recognized in free and democratic societies,” he said.

In a memo to the Speaker of Parliament, entitled “Interception of Postal Packets and Telecommunication Messages Bill, 2015,”the former AG popularly called Citizen Vigilante due to his anti-corruption crusade, said the memorandum accompanying the Bill does not comply with Article 106 (2).

“I bring my long experience in government and particularly in the Attorney General’s Office to a consideration of the Bill in the hope that it will assist parliament, the Attorney General and the Minister of the Interior to have a second and more critical look at the Bill to the end that when it is eventually enacted into law it will contribute to securing maximum civil liberty for the individual under the Constitution.”

Memo To The Bill

He said that the fundamental human rights and freedoms provisions in the Constitution “show that the Bill, which is intended to intercept communications of any form, will in a way interfere with the right to privacy and general freedoms under the Constitution.”

He said the Memorandum to the Bill “presents the Bill without explaining any policy or principles underpinning it that justify the limitations sought to be placed on the Constitutional guaranteed freedoms and rights, let alone to comply with the other requirements of Article 106(2) of the Constitution.

“The Memorandum to the Bill does not even deal with the existing laws on interception of communications which are spread in various laws such as the Narcotic Drug (Control Enforcement and Sanctions) Act, 1990 (PNDCL 236), Security and Intelligence Agencies Act, 1996 (Act 526), the Anti-Money Laundry Act, 2008 (Act 748), the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2008 (Act 762), the Economic and Organised Crime Office Act, 2010 (Act 804) and the Mutual Legal Assistance Act, 2010 (Act 807), as amended to show the defects of the existing law and the necessity for introducing this Bill.”

Selected Provisions

The former AG asked: “What are the criteria for the ordinary citizen and indeed the judge who is to grant the interception warrant to determine whether or not ‘protecting national security’ includes communications by opposing political parties that are perceived to threaten the governing regime’s continued stay in Government within the multiparty democratic political process?

“Will the interception and interference with the communications of political opponents as happened in Uganda during their recent elections not pass the test of ‘for the purpose of protecting national security?’” he queried further.

Interception Procedures

According to Mr. Amidu, the Bill is silent on why the legislative scheme adopted by parliament in those other similar legislations must give way to a centralization of power in the National Security Coordinator or his office over and above service and agency commanders.

He argued that in other democratic jurisdictions oral applications must also be made to the judge in chambers to safeguard rights and said Section 4(3) of the Bill, which permits the National Security Coordinator to orally authorize interception in urgent situations, must be looked at again.

Receipt Of Application

He said the Constitution demands that the government should “transparently and accountably establish agencies under the authority of law and not to clandestinely seek to use covertly existing organizations to snoop upon the citizens of Ghana.”

Interception Capability

Mr Amidu also said that a careful reading of the provisions of the Bill on interception capability “leaves one in no doubt of the necessity for the formal establishment by law of a Government Agency for interception of communications and related matters.”

Court Supervision

He said aside the role entrusted to the National Security Coordinator, “Section 18 of the Bill is badly drafted and does not even meet the democratic standards of similar Acts internationally, such as those of South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, to mention but a few.”

 “Consideration ought to be given to whether the title of the Bill should not be changed to meet the international best practice in this area of interception of communications,” he suggested.

Mr. Amidu urged, “It is important that this Bill obtains bi-partisan support in its eventual constitutional journey through parliament to vindicate the trust we the people have placed in parliament to protect our fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed under Chapter 5 and 6 of the 1992 Constitution. Let us put Ghana First!

“I conclude my examination and analysis of the Bill with the conviction that the civil liberties of Ghanaians may require that the Bill be withdrawn to enable it meet the constitutional precondition for it to be properly introduced in parliament and to give the Minister of the Interior and the Attorney General more time to harmonize the Bill with existing legislation.”

MINISTER MISLEADS MAHAMA – ANGRY HOHOE RESIDENTS

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday, 04 March 2016

Some residents of Hohoe municipality in the Volta Region on Wednesday vented their spleen on Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, Minister of Roads and Highways, for allegedly misleading President John Mahama over the Hohoe township roads in his (Mahama’s) recent State of the Nation Address.

President Mahama had created the impression that the construction of roads in the town was nearing completion, when there was no road construction going on. The residents have therefore turned their anger on Mr Fuseini who made an unannounced visit with a section of the media with intent to showcase the road projects, which they claim are unavailable.

President John Mahama, in his much-talked-about address, had said several road projects were ongoing in Hohoe to give the roads a facelift, but the residents say that is not true on the ground.

Hohoe roads were not the only projects the president goofed about. Several others in other regions and towns are non-existent, according to research, making residents to have a different picture about the president.

The obviously angry Hohoe residents described as ‘mischievous’ the obvious misrepresentation of their situation presented to the president.

Deception

“We’ve been deceived for long. We are not ready for such deceptions again,” one of the residents told Citi Fm.

Another charged, “If they are ready to tell us anything, they should come to the road and do it. Where they initially showed you, it is Hohoe to Lolobi road; it’s not Hohoe town road. There are other Hohoe town roads they are not taking you to. The NDC people here are deceiving you. They should send you to the town road instead.”

The residents claimed that the contractor (called Gohez) working on the Hohoe town road abandoned the project close to four years but when he heard about the impending visit of the minister, “he rushed to the chief’s palace before your coming to convince the chief to talk well in his favour.

“Please, they are not doing the town road so what the president said was false. He was totally misled.”

DAILY GUIDE learnt that funding had not been provided for the contract, leading to the contractor vacating the site.

The stretch from the First Ghana Building Society junction to Gbi Kpeme suburb of Hohoe was given on contract to Gohez during the late President Mills’ era. 

However, not even the drains have been completed. Work on this road stalled even before the demise of President Mills. No contractor has since been seen on site.

The Roads and Highway Minister later said, “I have directed that they summon him (contractor) to a meeting in Accra on Thursday for us to assess his capacity to complete the work. So if we are convinced that he lacks the capacity to complete the work, we might have to look for an alternative contractor to do the work.”

NPP Exposure

Even before the minister’s visit, the opposition New Patriotic Party’s (NPP’s) Volta Regional Chairman, John Peter Amewu, had exposed President Mahama over his assertion that the roads in the municipality were almost completed.

According to Mr Amewu, a former MCE for Hohoe, it was rather the NPP government that constructed most of the critical road networks in the municipality and insisted that the NDC could not reap where they had not sown.

Writing on the topic, “Akufo-Addo was right about Hohoe town roads” on Facebook recently, the NPP regional chairman said, “The 46-kilometre road from Pepesu to Nkwanta was funded by EU under President Kufuor. The NPP had secured funding for the construction of the road before President Kufuor left office.”

He added, “The Golokwati-Hohoe road was constructed under NPP double seal (awarded to Rollider). All Hohoe town roads were constructed by the NPP. These include post office to electricity (awarded to GOHES Ltd); the district assembly to the electricity (awarded to GOHES Ltd); the post office square to the stadium (awarded to GOHES Ltd); the market to the hospital (awarded to GOHES Ltd); Zongo junction to Barclays (awarded to GOHES Ltd); and Post Office Square to St Francis College (awarded to GOHES Ltd).” “In all, about 7.2km of the town road was constructed under the NPP with chipping spray.”

He claimed further, “Under Mahama/NDC, the 300-metre hospital road in Hohoe is currently under construction at a very slow pace. This includes the construction of the side drains. This section of the town road was awarded under the NDC.”

He also added that “work on the other road network in Hohoe, involving the construction of drains at Kpeme, Bla and Abanse road [was] abandoned over a year ago, with the contractor having vacated the site.”

ANGLOGOLD SUED $6.5M OVER NEGLIGENCE

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday, 04 March 2016

The family of a deceased employee of Anglogold Ashanti is suing the mining giant for negligence.

The plaintiffs which include Joyce Baffour, wife; and Akosua Abrafi, mother, are claiming $6.5 million from Anglogold over the death of George Emil Baffour, who was an engineer of the company.

In their suit before the Labour Division of an Accra High Court, the plaintiffs claim that negligence on the part of Anglogold Ashanti led to the death of Enimil Baffour, who left behind three infant children.

They are therefore claiming special damages of the cedi equivalent of $6,500,000.00 for the loss of the late engineer, as well as general damages for alleged “mental distress, consortium, loss of love companionship, comfort, affection, society, solace and moral support.”

The plaintiffs also claimed “an amount equivalent to 60 month’s earnings of the deceased under the Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1987.”

In their statement of claim filed late last month, the plaintiffs averred that the deceased was retrenched on October 31, 2014 and re-engaged on November 14, 2014 for one year in his capacity as mechanical engineer attached to Anglogold’s Feasibility Study (Engineering) Department at the Obuasi Mine.

They claimed that on October 22, 2015, the deceased was selected as part of a team of Anglogold Ashanti Ghana and Randgold Resources Limited that had entered into investment agreement to redevelop the Obuasi Mine to go underground in a conveyor attached to Anglogold’s Adansi Underground Mine at Obuasi.

According to the plaintiffs, Anglogold officials telephoned Joyce Baffour, wife of the deceased at about 11:00 am on October 22, 2015 to inform her that her husband had been involved in a fatal accident in the underground mine.

The plaintiffs claimed that it took about seven hours before the deceased lifeless body was retrieved and deposited at Anglogold Ashanti Hospital morgue.

They claimed that a police and an autopsy report later revealed that the engineer died when their conveyor submerged, and the autopsy report identified the cause of death as “asphyxia” due to drowning.

According to the plaintiffs, the engineer died “by reason of the negligence and/or breach of duty on the part of the defendant, its servants, agents and assigns.”

NPP CHAIRMAN EXPOSES NDC OVER HOHOE ROADS

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Wednesday, March 02, 2016

The Volta Regional Chairman of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Peter Amewu, has exposed President John Dramani Mahama who had claimed in his (Mahama’s) State of the Nation Address that roads in the Hohoe municipality in the Volta Region had almost been completed.

According to Mr. Amewu, who was a former MCE for Hohoe, it was rather the NPP government that constructed most of the road networks in the municipality and insisted that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) should not reap where it had not sown.

Mr. Amewu took to Facebook to defend his party’s flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who had held a news conference on Monday to give Ghanaians what the NPP called the ‘True State of the Nation.”

Nana Akufo-Addo at the news conference, had said the Hohoe Township Roads were constructed under the Kufuor regime and confirmed that he had calls from residents of Hohoe that the roads were done under the President Kufuor administration.

 “The residents of Hohoe have said their town roads were done during the Kufuor administration..." he insisted adding, “This is disrespectful to the people of Ghana and to our Republican institutions for the president to exhibit such a cavalier attitude to facts in a formal address to the nation.”

The NDC, since Nana Akufo-Addo’s news conference, has been lambasting him for daring to question the president’s address, but Mr. Amewu said yesterday that the NDC could not continue to run Ghana on the platform of propaganda.

Writing on the topic, “Akufo-Addo was right about Hohoe town roads,” the NPP regional chairman said, “The 46-kilometer road from Pepesu to Nkwanta was funded by EU Fund under President Kufuor. The NPP had secured funding for the construction of the road before President Kufuor left office.”

He added, “The Golokwati-Hohoe road was constructed under NPP double seal (awarded to Rollider). All Hohoe town roads were constructed by the NPP. These include: Post Office to Electricity (awarded to GOHES Ltd); the District Assembly to the Electricity (awarded to GOHES Ltd); the Post Office Square to the Stadium (awarded to GOHES Ltd); the market to the hospital (awarded to GOHES Ltd); Zongo Junction to Barclays (awarded to GOHES Ltd); and Post Office Square to St Francis College (awarded to GOHES Ltd), In all, about 7.2km of the town’s roads was constructed under the NPP with chipping spray.”

He added, “Under Mahama/NDC, the 300-metre hospital road in Hohoe is currently under construction at very slow pace. This includes the construction of the side drains. This section of the town’s road was awarded under the NDC.”

 “Work on the other road network in Hohoe, involving the construction of drains at Kpeme, Bla and Abanse, has been abandoned over a year ago with the contractor having vacated the site.”

FORCE POLITICIANS TO ACT – OTABIL

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Tuesday, March 01, 2016

Pastor Mensah Anamuah Otabil, General Overseer of International Central Gospel Church, says the time has come for Ghanaians, especially the youth, to compel the ruling elite to introduce policies that ensure that everybody’s dream is realized.

“We have to force the politicians to think of us and to think of our lives and to think of our future and to think of our dreams. And the only way to do that is for you to start thinking not in party terms, but in policy terms, and making sure that the laws that govern your industry favour you.”

Right Environment

Closing a youth camp dubbed, ‘Springboard’ hosted by Albert and Comfort Ocran of Combert Impressions last week, Pastor Otabil charged the youth to overlook political parties in getting the leadership of the country to pursue policies that would create conducive environment for businesses to thrive.

“The right environment is not NPP or NDC,” he pointed out. “Parties don’t govern nations, laws and policies govern nations. Go beyond party names and start examining policies and demanding policies that will make you thrive,” he added.

Opposite Direction

Pastor Otabil, who is the founder of arguably Ghana’s most successful private university - Central University College – said, “The most frustrating efforts in life is that you are trying to move but everything in the system is going against you in the opposite direction.

“If we want to create dreamers we must create a nation with dreams. If we want to create dreamers in our nation then the laws of this nation must facilitate the dreams of people. If we want to create dreamers then the policies we put in place must not lead us in the opposite direction but must facilitate where we are going.”

Daring To Dream

He underscored, “Dreaming is not just about you alone having the plan but also the environment you are operating.  It could be your nation, the family, a job, an office that you work in. Whatever system you operate in, it has to help you to get there.

“A person can be so good but if he is planted in a wrong environment he is going to turn out so bad and it has nothing to do with his ability or capacity. It has to do with the environment he is planted in.”

He said the current environment in the country is “killing the dreams of you men and young women,” and queried, “How can people go to university and for years, not know what to do and people with great potential not fulfill their potential?”

Staying For Success

Pastor Otabil said it does not have to take people to travel outside the country before they can succeed insisting, “We have to demand that in our own country, the sulphar that poisons talents is removed so that you and I can stay here and succeed and have a success story whether as musicians, as medical doctors, as engineers, as footballers.

“Whatever we do, we must succeed because we don’t have two lives. I don’t believe in reincarnation. This is the final game! This is all you have. This is all I have. And if I waste my time and my life, I am wasting my talent and my opportunities.” 

Mediocrity

He observed, “The challenge for nations like Ghana is not the challenge of talented citizens.  It is the challenge of poisonous environment - an environment that has been poisoned by ordinariness, by mediocrity and sometimes by a clear agenda to destroy talent.

“How can a nation be great when its systems are fighting the talents of its people? For a nation to be great, its laws have to facilitate growth. You cannot overtax businesses and kill them and hope they will survive at the same time. It doesn’t work that way. If we want businesses to survive and thrive, we have to create an environment for businesses to thrive.”

Impossible Scenarios

“If Mark Zuckerberg was a Ghanaian and had the idea of facebook, would his idea have thrived? If Steve Jobs had a great idea of the Apple and was a thriving Computer Engineer in Kokomlemle, would he have built that world-class brand? I don’t know but it seems to me all of us agreed it would have been extraordinary for them to have succeeded. So what is the difference between Mark Zuckerberg and you? Steve Jobs and you? It is not brains, it is the environment!” Pastor Mensah Otabil stressed.

He wondered, “How can one man (Zuckerberg) be richer than our own country? It’s an insult to our intelligence. A man who wasn’t born during our independence is richer than all of us put together!

“It is not funny to me. It is annoying to me. It is an insult to me and my human potential and what God created me to be able to achieve.”