Prosecute Transnational Organized Crimes and money laundering – Ndego

By Laudia Sawer 

Tema, June 1, GNA - Mr. Benjamin Ndego, a criminologist, has called for concurrent investigations and prosecution of Transnational Organized Crimes (TOC) with money laundering to enable relevant institutions to recover proceeds of such crimes. 

 

Mr. Ndego, who is also an Expert in Organized Crime and Money Laundering, said the current practice of institutions focusing only on predicated crimes before going to tackle money laundering would give the perpetrators enough time to divert the monies and cover them up. 

 

He made the call during the ongoing two-week Maritime Security and Transnational Organized Crime (MSTOC) programme organized by the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) with support from the German Government. 

 

He said that the proceeds of all TOCs activities such as drug trafficking, arms trafficking, human trafficking and smuggling, and terrorism, among others, end up in money laundering. 

 

He said it was a vicious cycle in which the crime generated monies that needed to be laundered as a way to avoid detection, and those monies were then used to sponsor more crimes to generate higher proceeds. 

 

"Arresting people and jailing them without collecting the monies involved in the proceedings is just a waste of time and national resources, as they go and come back to enjoy the money they made from those crimes," he said. 

 

Mr. Ndego said the criminals wash their dirty monies by initially injecting the illegal cash into banks or security companies and sometimes transforming it into other assets, and they also remove the monies far from the location of acquisition to avoid detection. 

 

He said they lay the money through its conversion into monetary instruments such as bonds and also sell the initial assets acquired. 

 

The criminologist said the last part of the money laundering involved integrating it into real estate, buying properties, and buying loss-making enterprises, among others. 

 

Touching on the types of money laundering, he said some laundered the monies through third parties who were not involved in the committing of the crimes, whiles some do self-laundering as well as stands alone. 

 

He said some of the features of money laundering were having monies from a criminal origin, with the aim of obscuring the origin while making the funds appear legitimate, using front companies, strawmen, and philanthropic activities, and co-mingling the money as a cover. 

GNA 

Hypertension in pregnancy could lead to premature delivery

By Angela Ayimbire, GNA  

Tema, June 01, GNA – Hypertension in pregnancy, if not managed, could lead to complications including seizures, coma, premature delivery, and an increased chance of intrauterine growth restriction in the baby, Dr. Derrick Darko, a Medical Officer, has cautioned. 

 

Other consequences include detachment of the placenta, bleeding in pregnancy, and a higher probability of remaining hypertensive after delivery. 

 

Dr Darko, a medical officer at the International Maritime Hospital (IMaH), noted that among maternal deaths that occurred during delivery, about 50 percent were attributed to hypertension.  

 

Speaking at a weekly health discussion programme called "Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility,  Dr. Darko said even though the causes of hypertension were yet to be established, some contributory factors included a high intake of salt and fatty foods, a hereditary condition, and a sedentary lifestyle. 

 

"Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility is Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office initiative aimed at promoting health-related communication and providing a platform for health information dissemination to influence personal health choices through improved health literacy 

 

The Office developed the public health advocacy platform "Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility" to investigate the components of four health communication approaches: informing, instructing, convincing, and promoting. 

 

He explained that there are four categories of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy: chronic hypertension, gestational hypertension, preeclampsia-eclampsia, and chronic hypertension with superimposed preeclampsia. 

 

Dr. Darko said apart from recording high blood pressure readings, other signs to look out for were protein in the urine, which could be picked up through the various tests done during pregnancy. 

 

Others include severe frontal headaches that could not be reduced with the intake of painkillers, visual blurriness, flashes of light on the face, continuous nausea and vomiting, experiencing pain just beneath the breast or right side of the abdomen, and a sharp increase in weight with swellings of the hands and feet that look shiny. 

 

He explained that hypertension in pregnancy could be categorized in two ways: those who were already diagnosed as hypertensive before getting pregnant and those who developed it during pregnancy. 

 

He said those already diagnosed must seek pre-pregnancy counselling from their doctors before getting pregnant, adding that, with that their medications and dietary needs could be checked to avoid complications. 

 

He urged women to start antenatal care immediately after they recognized that they were pregnant to enable their blood pressure to be taken, recorded, and monitored to help in the early detection of any symptoms of hypertension and its related complications and to help save the lives of both mother and baby. 

GNA 

Bank Managers call on gov’t to flush out ‘black market’ operators

By Dennis Peprah

Sunyani, May 31, GNA – The heads of banking institutions in the Bono Region have called on the Government to be proactive enough and flush out money exchangers in the ‘black market’ for the Ghana cedi to regain its strength.

They observed that the illegal money exchange business was flourishing in Sunyani, the regional capital, and thereby putting undue pressure on the cedi, saying, because their exchange rates were high, they had high patronage from the public.

“I think the Government must do more to restrict the activities of the black marketers because their illegal businesses have a huge devastating toll on the banking business,” Mrs. Gloria Mensah Atakora, the Bono Regional Manager, GCB Bank PLC stated.

The Bank Managers made the call when they interacted with Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Bono Regional Minister in a meeting in Sunyani.

Mr Charles Eshun, the Bono Regional Manager of the Agriculture Development Bank (ADB), also advised the public to desist from exchanging foreign currencies in the black market to support government efforts to strengthen the Ghana cedi.

The Bank Managers also called on the National Identification Authority (NIA) to be expeditious in the issuance of the Ghana cards to the public, particularly Ghanaian residents abroad.

“Because they find it difficult to access the Ghana card, many Ghanaians who returned home from abroad are unable to open bank accounts and most of them also patronise the activities of the black marketers,” Mr Foster Frimpong, the Bono Regional Manager of the Zenith Bank stated.

They also appealed to the Regional Security Council to intervene and help increase Police presence at the Sunyani central business district (CBD) where most of the major banks were situated to enhance security in the enclave.

On her part, Madam Owusu-Banahene commended the managers for their frank discussions and assured that the Bono Regional Coordinating Council would also work hard in tackling some of the challenges impeding their operations in the region.

The Regional Minister called on the banks to open cash outlets in some of the major rural communities in the region to serve the rural population.

Madam Owusu-Banahene indicated that about 60 per cent of the regional population were farmers spread in the local communities, hence the need for the banks to extend their services to them too.

Meanwhile, activities of the illegal money exchangers are very common and rife, as several ‘black marketers,’ mostly nationals from Niger and Burkina Faso are dotted around corners of the CBD.

They transact their illegal businesses in the open as they approached visitors in the enclave for foreign currency exchange, with emphasis on the Euro and US dollar.

Good governance guarantees national stability - Former National Security Coordinator

By Dennis Peprah 

Sunyani, May 31, GNA - Mr Francis Poku, a former National Security Coordinator has said good governance and regime protection is a guarantee to national security and stability. 

"If we are able to ensure good governance, then we wouldn't have problems with threats of violent extremism and radicalism in the country," he stated. 

Mr Poku said the high unemployment rate and underdevelopment create dissatisfaction and thereby undermined national peace and stability. 

The former national security coordinator under the former President John Agyekum Kufuor's government was speaking at the Regional Dialogue session on trending conflict issues in Sunyani. 

The National Catholic Secretariat organised the day's session, attended by traditional leaders, representatives of religious bodies, security services, youth groups, policy implementers, trade associations and Senior High School students. 

It was on the theme: "Trending Conflicts in Ghana, Fertile Grounds for Violent Extremism: A Call for Action," and was in line with the Sahel Peace Initiative project being implemented by the Secretariat with funding from the Catholic Relief Services, a non-governmental organization. 

Citing Burkina Faso as an example, Mr Poku said about 60 per cent of that country had been taken over by rebels where people could not go on with their normal lives. 

"In fact, Ghana must ensure we don't run into that kind of situation where traditional chiefs had been slaughtered openly before their subjects," he stated. 

Insecurity, Mr Poku emphasized, remained a serious problem, hence the need for the nation to do more by tackling its security threats proactively to sustain national stability. 

Mr George Agbozo, a Senior Lecturer at the Catholic University of Ghana and an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Practitioner, expressed regret that the citizenry had certain misconceptions about governance, with some gradually losing faith in the judicial system. 

This, he added, had the potential to breed the culture of violence and extremism, if not tackled proactively. 

Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Bono Regional Minister mentioned chieftaincy conflicts, illegal mining, unemployment, and activities of nomadic Fulani herdsmen as some of the security challenges, which needed attention in the region. 

She commended the organisers for the dialogue and expressed the hope that it would strategised and help provide realistic interventions to tackle the threats of security, not only in the region, but the nation by extension.