Grant mass amnesty to prisoners at Ghana’s 50th anniversary - Archbishop

The Most Reverend Peter Kwasi Sarpong, Catholic Archbishop of Kumasi, has appealed to the Government to grant mass amnesty to some prisoners in the country to mark the 50th anniversary of Ghana’s independence.



He explained that such a gesture would not only decongest the nation’s overcrowded prisons but would also reconcile the nation as well as heal the wounds of affected families. Archbishop Sarpong made the appeal during his 36th annual visit to the Kumasi Central Prisons on the Boxing Day to share the word of God with the inmates and the prison officials.



He, however, called on the inmates not to see themselves as outcasts, who have come to the end of the road but use the period to take stock of their lives, forgive themselves and plan towards life after serving their jail terms. He commended the prison authorities for allowing him to adopt the prisons in the Region ever since he became Bishop, which had enabled him to preach and share the word of God with the inmates.




The Most Rev Gabriel Justice Anokye, the Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese, preaching the sermon, called on Christians to pray for both the inmates and the prison personnel to enable them to work and live peacefully. He lamented over the increasing spate of injustices in the country as a result of some law enforcing agencies not doing the right thing which in turn sent some innocent people into prison.



Bishop Anokye appealed to the society to avoid condemning people in prison custody since as he put it, “not all of them have committed crimes, as some were thrown into jail due to false accusations”.





Mr Ambrose Imoro Salifu, the Ashanti Regional Commander of Prisons, said the major problem facing his outfit now was the large numbers of remand prisoners had overstretched facilities compelling inmates to sleep in turns a situation he described as injurious to their health. He commended the Catholic Church for its regular support to prisons in the Region and appealed to the Government to increase the feeding allowance of 4,000 cedis for every inmate per day.




Mr Salifu also appealed to the Catholic Church to consider adopting measures to help to pay the minor fines imposed by the courts on some people who could not pay and thus landed them into jail as a way of decongesting the prisons.GNA

Disappointed Muslim pilgrims return home

Muslim pilgrims within the premises of the Aviance Cargo Village, near the Kotoka International Airport, who were waiting for a flight to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, have left for their various homes after learning that their trip was no longer possible.

Numbering over 1,000, the pilgrims who had come from all the regions had paid 20 million cedis each for their trip and spent periods ranging from a few days to three weeks within the premises of Aviance Cargo, as they waited for a flight to send them to Saudi Arabia.

Earlier in the week, two chartered flights sent about 400 of the stranded pilgrims to the Saudi Arabia, leaving about 1,000. The Ghana News Agency (GNA) discovered that by 1400 hours on Wednesday, the Aviance Cargo premises were almost empty with only a few of the pilgrims packing their belongings.

The pilgrims, who had earlier shown a lot of hope and courage even when their fate was quite bleak, looked quite resigned to their predicament.A pilgrim, Baba, said he together with others had travelled all the way from the Northern Region in three cars."Apart from the money we have paid; just imagine the other expenses and the inconvenience. Now we have to travel all the way back," he said.

One lady said, "I do not have a cedi left. After waiting here for more than one week, I have spent all the money I had. I only pray that I can borrow some money that would enable me to go back to Nsawam where I came from".Asked whether they still hoped to embark upon the pilgrimage the next time round, the pilgrims said they certainly would once they were still alive.

They said what was most important was for the present Hajj Council to be dissolved to make way for a more competent body that would not repeat the same mistakes.During the period of their wait, the pilgrims could make no contact with the Hajj Council Board members. They said while their offices were closed, none of them came to explain the situation to them. The pilgrims described this as most unfortunate since the Council members were directly responsible to facilitate their trip to the Holy Land.

They said they had been informed that their money would be refunded to them in due course.Ghanaian authorities had tried in vain to negotiate with Saudi authorities to extend the time of closure of the Jeddah Airport. By tradition, the Airport is closed to flights a few days to the beginning of the rituals of the Hajj.

Failure by pilgrims to make it to the Holy Land by the deadline means that they would have to abandon the Hajj for that particular year.The National Hajj Council on Wednesday gave up its efforts to fly hundreds of Muslims to Saudi Arabia for this year's Hajj because it was unable to secure extension of the deadline for its plane to land in that country.

"The National Hajj Council wishes to inform all prospective pilgrims and the general public that despite the frantic efforts made by the Government and the Mission in Jeddah, unfortunately extension (to land in Jeddah) was not granted,=94 it said in a statement issued in Accra."In view of this, pilgrims cannot be air lifted to the Kingdom to perform this year's Hajj."The statement said a substantial number of pilgrims had already been transported to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj.

The National Hajj Council is consulting all stake holders on the way forward and will provide a full statement on Friday 29th December, 2006 at 1000 hours at the International Press Centre,=94 it said.

The Council reiterates that they will continue to generate relationships with all and sundry, especially the Government and affected pilgrims in order to protect the interests of all,=94 it said.
Source:GNA

NDC Was Using State Funds — Crabbe

The Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Sammy Crabbe, has described statements by some National Democratic Congress (NDC) activists that being in opposition is hell as an indication that they were using state funds to enrich themselves when they were in power.

According to him, the NPP would not dip its hands into state coffers to cater for its members but would rather empower them through training to be economically independent to support the party, whether it is in power or not.

Mr Crabbe said this at the end-of-year get-together for members of the party in Accra. More than 100 members who have distinguished themselves in serving the party over the years were rewarded with standing fans.

Mr Crabbe said most of the members had been provided with employable skills, with others being supported to undergo various forms of education, while others had also been employed in factories set up by the regional secretariat.

He added that the regional office was in collaboration with some transport companies for the supply of 350 taxi cabs which would be given to members of the party in the Greater Accra on credit basis.He commended the members for the keen interest shown in the National Youth Employment Programme.

The General Secretary of the NPP, Nana Ohene Ntow, commended the Greater Accra Regional branch for always being innovative and urged other regional branches to emulate it.
Source:Graphic

Two million unemployed in Ghana

The Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment, Alhaji Boniface Abubakar Saddique has estimated the umeployment number in the country to be two million and said out of that number, 78,000, representing 26 per cent, were between the ages of 18-25.

He, therefore, advised the youth to take advantage of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) to get something to do in order to earn their keep.

The minister made the remark last Friday in Accra when some officials of his ministry interacted with the media to explain the programmes so far embarked upon by the ministry.Commenting on the numerous industrial disputes which hit the labour front this year, the minister expressed the hope that the Fair Wages Commission (FWC) would help to stem labour agitation.

He urged the labour unions and employees, such as the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Ghana Employers Association (GEA), to work at resolving labour issues amicably in order to bring sanity to the industrial sector.The National Co-ordinator of the NYEP, Mr Leo Kaba, in a separate interview, expressed his appreciation to the opposition parties, notably the National Democratic Congress (NDC), for supporting the programme.

He said every home in Ghana had at least an unemployed youth and added that the programme, in the long term, would provide sustenance for the numerous youths who were currently out of jobs.He said the organisations which absorbed the interns had been granted tax rebates by the government so that they could be encouraged to absorb more unemployed youths under the programme.

He mentioned the employment modules as paid internship, waste and sanitation and vacation jobs, among others, and was particularly happy about the recent rise in revenue mobilisation by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, with the support of about 300 youths.IN the same interview Saddique commended the media for undertaking positive but critical reportage of his ministry.

"Although sections of the media have been critical of us, that has propelled me to work harder, thereby putting me on my toes," he declared.Alhaji Saddique said in an interview that during his tenure as the Northern Regional Minister, the good media reports the region enjoyed contributed to bringing about peace and tranquillity in the Dagbon Traditional Area, especially during the burial of Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II.
Source:Culled From Graphic

NPP to organize national conference at Koforidua

The New Patriotic Party(NPP) is to organize it's national conference at Koforidua from January 5 to January 7, 2007 at the EREDEC Hotel.

The three-day conference which would be organized under the theme "Moving forward in unity" would be climaxed with a non-denominational church service in the morning of January 7 at the EREDEC Hotel and a rally at the Jackson's Park in the afternoon. This was disclosed by the National Organizer of NPP, Mr Laud Commey at a press conference at Koforidua on Tuesday.

He said the conference would be attended by over 200 delegates made up of 1,429 delegates from the constituencies and other delegates from the foreign constituencies of the party and would be used to reenergize and resource the structures of the party in preparations towards the 2008 elections.

Mr Commey said the conference would discuss reports from the regions, some key ministries and the government to assess how the manifesto presented to the people of Ghana by the party was being fulfilled.

He said a special feature of the conference would be the opportunity that would be offered the delegates to sit with the President to chat with him and ask him key questions on issues affecting the areas where they were coming from.

Mr. Commey said some proposals had been forwarded to the party secretariat and would expect some amendments to be made to the constitution of the party but did not specify. He explained that as far as the party was concern, there are no presidential aspirants of the party but what was happening could best be described as party members conducting consultations and "testing the waters".

Mr. Commey explained that, by the constitution of the party, 14 months before an election, the party opens nominations for possible presidential candidates to fill their nominations. He explained that, it was after the filling of nomination that a committee would be set up by the party to vet the nominees and it was after a nominee had been confirmed by the committee that the fellow would become a presidential aspirant of the party.

Mr. Commey described the research said to have been published on the presidential aspirants through a poll of delegates as a fun because the delegates of the party were not automatic. He explained that by the constitution of the party, every constituency would be expected to organize a special delegates conference to elect four delegates from the ten constituency executives and six non-executive members and as at now nobody knows who would be a delegate and so wonder who were interviewed.

Mr. Commey said to him, the various threats of passing of vote of no confidence in the various executives of the party at different levels of the party was an expression that the party was alive and that the ordinary members of the party could point out faults of the leadership to them even if the ordinary members were wrong.

The Eastern Regional chairman of the party, Mr Yaw Gyekye Amoabeng explained that, most of the party members accusing him of not acting on their threat to have their executives removed were not having their way because often, they failed to abide by the laid down procedures in the constitution of the party.Source:GNA

Cocaine traces 'on Spanish euros'

Traces of cocaine can be found on 94% of euro banknotes circulating in Spain, a study has suggested. Analysis of notes from a selection of Spain's major cities showed that each one carried an average of 25.18 micrograms of cocaine.
Spain has one of the highest rates of cocaine use in the world, with about 475,000 regular users, El Mundo newspaper reports.
Euro banknotes have only been in circulation since January 2002.

Scientists could not carry out tests on old peseta banknotes before 2002 for fear that they would not withstand the chemicals used in the analysis.
Now, though, armed with resilient modern euro notes, experts collected 20 notes for analysis from each of five cities - Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, Valencia and Seville.
From each city they gathered five 10 euro notes, 10 of 20 euros and five of 50 euros.
Only three of notes gathered from each of Madrid and Barcelona were found to carry no trace of cocaine.

Wider issue

Users of the drug usually snort it by rolling up a banknote into the shape of a tube.
But experts said it was difficult to tell which notes had been used for snorting cocaine and which had become contaminated with the drug in other ways, such as in counting machines.
According to El Mundo Spain has just over one billion banknotes in circulation, with estimates suggesting that 142 million have been used directly to snort the drug.

Other countries have been found to have drug problems in the past: a BBC survey in 1999 found that 99% of £5 notes tested in London contained traces of cocaine.
Euro banknotes in Germany appear especially vulnerable: a 2003 survey gave similar results to the Spanish analysis about cocaine traces.

And this month officials in Germany suggested that methamphetamine, or crystal meth, could be causing euros to "corrode" when users snort it through a rolled-up note.

Lagos Pipeline Blast Kills scores

More than 200 people have been killed in an oil pipeline explosion in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos, the Red Cross says.
Officials say they are still counting bodies and it is feared the death toll could be much higher.

The blast in the Abule Egba area happened as hundreds of people were scooping fuel from a pipeline punctured by thieves, officials said.
Some 2,000 people have died in similar incidents in the past decade.
Bodies 'scattered'

A Red Cross official said efforts to recover the bodies were being hampered by the intense heat.
NIGERIA PIPELINE DISASTERS
May 2006: At least 150 killed in Lagos
Dec 2004: At least 20 killed in Lagos
Sept 2004: At least 60 killed in Lagos
June 2003: At least 105 killed in Abia State
Jul 2000: At least 300 killed in Warri
Mar 2000: At least 50 killed in Abia State
Oct 1998: At least 1,000 killed in Jesse
Pictures from the scene
"We can only recognise them through the skulls, the bodies are scattered over the ground," Ige Oladimeji was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.
Akintunde Akinkleye, a Reuters news agency photographer at the scene, said he had counted about 500 bodies.
The secretary general of Nigeria's Red Cross, Abiodum Orebiyi, told the BBC that a number of houses had been destroyed, along with a mosque and a church.
He said the blaze had now been brought under control.