BAWKU SHOOTING: 33 PERSONS RELEASED (D/G, Monday August 24, 2009. PAGE 3)

All the 33 persons who were rounded up by the security agencies in connection with last Thursday’s shooting incident in Bawku, have been released.
The Deputy Upper East Regional Police Commander, Mr George Tuffuor, in an interview with the Daily Graphic, said the arrested individuals were granted their freedom after an initial screening exercise exonerated them from any wrongdoing.
The suspects were arrested by the military after an unknown assailant shot and killed two persons including a fire service man and injured two others in Bawku last Thursday night. They were later handed over to the police for further investigation.
The deceased were identified as Abdul Ganiru, aged 30, and the Fire Officer, DO II John Atubiga, while those who sustained injuries were named as Razak Abdul Rahman, aged 60, and Ambia Fuseini, aged 15.
The injured were rushed to hospital for treatment.
Mr Tuffuor, who is also an Assistant Commissioner of Police, said the atmosphere in Bawku was relatively calm, adding that the entire municipality had been flooded with police and military personnel to ensure that nothing untoward happened.
He gave the assurance that the security personnel were alive to their duties and would deal firmly with any individual who disturbed the peace of the area.

UPPER EAST NPP ACTIVISTS DISAGREE WITH PORTIONS OF AMENDMENTS (D/G, Saturday, August 22, 2009. PAGE 14)

SOME activists of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Upper East Region have disagreed with portions of the proposed amendments to the party’s constitution which they claim, have the potential of damaging the unity and advancement of the party.
This was contained in a statement signed by Mr Mark Wanaba on behalf of a group of NPP activists who also claimed to be part of the “amendment delegation” from the region.
The statement said it had found the proposal for the expansion of the presidential electoral college very dangerous “because the argument that the expansion of the electoral college will do away with the perceived use of money to influence delegates does not fly since those elected as flag bearers for the party in the recent past have proven to be credible persons”.
It further contended that the rather large size of the proposed electoral college would become a serious drain on the party’s resources.
The statement said the enlargement of the electoral college would destroy electoral confidentiality in the sense that the election of the party’s flag bearer would now be done at the various constituencies as in a general election and the results declared right from the constituency level.
“As a result, a candidate who emerges as the flag bearer will know which constituencies supported his presidential ambition and those which tried to sabotage that dream”, it said, adding that such a development would breed suspicion and disunity in the party.
“On the basis of the aforementioned argument, the proposed expansion of the electoral college for presidential, parliamentary and constituency level elections should be rejected and the status quo maintained”, the statement cautioned.
Arguing further, the group said the proposed amendment which sought to restrict party membership and eligibility to only card bearers appeared to be highly discriminatory.
It cited for instance, the difficulty in acquiring party cards which, they said, had become a serious challenge to many loyal rural party members at the grass-root level.
“The highly centralised processes involved in the acquisition of membership cards seriously discriminates against thousands of loyal members outside Accra”, the statement said.
According to the information in the amendment document, over 4,500,000 Ghanaians voted for Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo in the 2008 presidential election but NPP card bearing members were just about 200,000.
That, the statement claimed, clearly indicated that an overwhelming majority of party members, sympathisers and loyalists did not bear cards, adding “How then can card-bearing be used as a yardstick to judge one’s membership of, and loyalty to the party?
The statement expressed the hope that the party was capable of coming back to power in 2012, and therefore, called on all members to learn from their past mistakes and not to do anything to divide the party over mere constitutional amendments which had no direct bearing on the decisions of the electorate.

TWO SHOT DEAD IN BAWKU ...Assailants unknown (D/G, Saturday, August 22, 2009. PAGE 3)

TWO people, one of them a fire officer of the Ghana National Fire Service, were last Thursday shot dead by unknown assailants in separate incidents at Bawku in the Upper East Region.
Two others were seriously wounded in the attacks.
The names of the deceased were given as Abdul Ganiru, aged 30, and Fire Officer DO II John Atubiga, and the injured were Razak Abdul Rahman, 60, and Ambia Fuseini, 15.
Briefing the Daily Graphic, the Deputy Upper East Regional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police, George Tuffuor, said at 8:20 p.m. on Thursday, unknown assailants, with no known motive, attacked and shot Ganiru, a storekeeper, at North Natinga, a suburb of Bawku.
He was shot from behind and the bullet penetrated the neck.
Mr Tuffuor said the deceased was rushed to the Bawku Presbyterian Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
He said a post-mortem had already been carried out and the body released to the family for burial in line with Islamic beliefs.
In the case of the fire officer, Mr Tuffour said the late DO II Atubiga sought permission to go out to buy food but on his way back to the office located in the same vicinity (North Natinga), he was ambushed and shot about five times.
Mr Tuffuor said the two injured persons were hit by what were believed to be stray bullets in the same neighbourhood by the unknown assailants.
He added that both were sent to the Bawku Presbyterian Hospital, where they are responding to treatment.
Mr Tuffour could not put a finger on what might have precipitated the latest round of attacks but said the police had mounted a search for the assailants and were also trying to unravel the reasons behind the attacks.
Meanwhile, the Minister of the Interior has renewed the curfew imposed on the Bawku municipality and Gushegu and their immediate environs for another week with effect from August 17, 2009.
The decision was based on the advice of the Upper East and Northern Regional Security Councils and by an Executive Instrument.
The curfew hours for the Bawku Municipality and Gushegu remain unchanged and are from midnight to 4 a.m. each day.
A statement issued by the Ministry of the Interior in Accra said the government would continue to commend the chiefs, elders, opinion leaders, citizenry and the various factions in the Bawku conflict for the sustained peace in their respective communities.
It assured all of the government’s commitment to protect all parties in the conflict, as well as work with the various factions towards finding a lasting peace.
The statement reminded the people in the Bawku Municipal Area, Zabugu, Binduri, Pusiga, Zoasi and Gushegu and their environs that there was a ban on them from carrying arms, ammunition or any offensive weapons, and any person found with any arms or ammunition would be arrested and prosecuted.
Meanwhile, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central, Mr Adamu Daramani Sakande, has appealed for calm following the death of two persons at Bawku, reports Mabel Aku Baneseh.
He also expressed his condolence to the bereaved families and appealed to the families to remain calm while the police conducted investigations into the deaths.
According to the MP, Ganiru was his (MP’s) avid supporter who accompanied him (MP) to court and prayed to God to give him (deceased) a peaceful rest.
Mr Sakande appealed to the security agencies to be firm and impartial while investigating the incident.
He said he appreciated the difficulties associated with their work and expressed the belief that they would surmount all challenges and let justice prevail.
He gave the assurance that he would continue to pursue the path of reconciliation and peace in the Bawku muncipality.

TWO UPPER REGIONS TO EXPERIENCE LESS RAINFALL (D/G, Thursday, August 20, 2009. PAGE 35)

THE Upper East and Upper West regions are unlikely to experience floods as recorded in August and September, 2007, that led to massive destruction of lives and property, the acting Executive Secretary of the Water Resources Commission (WRC), Mr Ben Ampomah, has disclosed.
Mr Ampomah was speaking to the Daily Graphic at Bolgatanga on the sidelines of a workshop for journalists and information officers selected from Ghana, Burkina Faso and Togo, on Water Resource Management.
He explained that the situation had come about as a result of an agreement signed between Ghana and Burkina Faso to open more channels of communications for quicker exchange of information and response to spilling and possible flooding.
The northern regions are vulnerable to floods that damage property and lives.
It would be recalled that in 2007, due to excessive rains coupled with the opening of the sluice gates of the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso at short notice, the entire area was flooded and a number of lives were lost and property worth several thousands of cedis was destroyed.
The Volta Basin is the main and largest shared waters for both Ghana and Burkina Faso. The basin serves as a source of water supply, hydro power and irrigation for both countries.
According to Mr Ampomah, the water level in the Bagre Dam this time round was low as compared to previous years.
“Officials of both countries have been meeting to discuss the issue and we are very hopeful that we are not going to experience that incident again”, he said.
“It’s not every year that there is going to be a spillage, it depends on the water levels. So far this year, indications are that the water levels are low, and we hope that that we are not going to experience that but whenever there is a change we will quickly inform the population along the banks of the White Volta and make them aware of the dangers that lie ahead”, he said.
Mr Ampomah stated that key stakeholders, including NADMO as well as the Volta River Authority, (VRA) and their counterparts in Burkina Faso, SONABEL have all been informed and made aware of the situation.
He, however, stated that once there was a change, the population of the communities along the White Volta would be notified and the necessary contingency measures taken to avert flooding.
The sensitisation programme for the journalists which was sponsored by PAGEV (a trans-boundary project for improving water governance in the Volta Basin) was to expose the selected participants from the three countries on the institutional and established legal frameworks for the management of water resources with the view to equip them to assist in informing and educating the concerned population.
The Acting Executive Director, who also co-chairs the Ghana-Burkina Joint Technical Committee Integrated Water Resources Management, (JTC-IWRM), said although Ghana and Burkina Faso had come a long way towards addressing their trans-boundary water management issues, a lot more work remains to be done to improve the shared responsibility for managing trans-boundary waters of the two countries
He called on the government of Ghana and Burkina Faso to demonstrate improved political will to continue nurturing the opportunities for trans-boundary cooperation.

annual leave

Benjamin Xornam Glover, the author of this blog has started is on his annual leave from June 15, 2009 to August 13, 2009.

MOVES TO IMPROVE HEALTH TRAINING INSTITUTIONS IN UE (PAGE 40)

IN a bid to address the inadequate infrastructural needs of health training institutions in the Upper East Region, the Regional Health Directorate has developed a proposal to source a Kuwaiti government funding to expand and upgrade the four public health training schools.
The funds, when secured, will promote effective and efficient teaching and learning, as well as improve staffing levels in the health institutions in the region.
The Regional Director of Health Services, Dr John Koku Awoonor-Williams, disclosed this at the maiden joint matriculation ceremony for 662 students of five health training institutions in the region.
They are the Community Health Nurses Training School at Navrongo, the Health Assistants Training School at Zuarungu, the Midwifery Training School, the Nurses Training College and the Presbyterian Nurses Training College, all in Bawku.
Dr Awoonor-Williams said the infrastructure in all the schools did not support effective teaching and learning, adding that the poor and limited infrastructure also greatly affected the capacity to admit the required number of students.
He said, for instance, that the Midwifery Training School could not start the last academic year due to lack of classrooms and student hostels.
To help solve the problem, he appealed to district assemblies, district health administrations, the community, parents and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to take urgent steps to provide accommodation for students in their respective districts.
He urged the newly admitted trainees to eschew indiscipline and warned that the authorities would not hesitate to suspend and even dismiss students who fell foul of school regulations and the Ghana Health Service core values and nursing ethics.
Dr Awoonor-Williams said as a matter of policy, the professional training of nurses was incomplete without the one-year mandatory practical orientation of the newly qualified trainee and warmed that the authorities would not tolerate request from people in high places for the release of newly qualified nurses for posting to the southern parts of Ghana.
He said as a matter of policy, the region would admit 70-80 per cent students from the region and 20-30 per cent from outside the region to address the human resource needs of the region and appealed to the district directors of health and district assemblies in the region to help attract trainees through sponsorship.
The Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Mrs Lucy Awuni, said a cursory look at the ratio of health professionals to patients in the region for 2008 painted a gloomy picture in terms of healthcare delivery.
She said while the ratio of medical officer to patient was 1:34,629, that of a professional nurse to patient was 1:5,177. Again, the ratio of midwife to patient was 1:4,203, while that of medical assistant to patient was 1:35,865.
She, therefore, appealed to health professionals posted to the region in particular to accept such postings and assist in the transformation of the region, since they were assured of the availability of adequate accommodation and other facilities to ensure their comfort.
The Deputy Registrar of the Nurses and Midwives Council, Mr Felix Nyante, who administered the matriculation oath, urged the trainees to abide by the oath and cautioned them against strikes upon joining the health service.
The President of the Conference of Heads of Health Training Institutions, Mr James Yambor, urged the government to extend the GETFund to health training institutions for the development and maintenance of essential academic facilities.

MINER STEALS LADY'S HANDBAG (MIRROR, PAGE 27, JUNE 27)

From Benjamin Xornam Glover, Bolgatanga

For stealing a lady’s hand bag worth GH¢10 containing a mobile phone worth GH¢ 25, lip stick and a cash of GH¢10, Iddrisu Ayindoor, a small scale miner (Galamsey Operator), has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment with hard labour, by a Bolgatanga Circuit Court.
The accused was convicted on his own plea of guilty in a court presided over by Mr William Boampong.
The facts as presented in court by Police Prosecutor, Inspector John Agyuah, said on June 11, 2009 at exactly 9:00a.m., the complainant who is a hair dresser, arrived at her salon at Kumbosoligo, a suburb of Bolgatanga only to realise that she had left the keys to her shop at home.
The prosecutor said the complainant therefore left her handbag containing a Vodafon cell phone worth GH¢ 25 with a chip, a lipstick and GH¢ 10 on a veranda in front of her salon and went home for her keys.
He continued that the accused, who was around and saw the bag, picked it and absconded to an uncompleted building nearby, where he took out all the items from the bag, after which he threw the bag away.
The prosecutor told the court that unknown to the convict, an eyewitness spotted him throw the bag away and confronted him and an argument ensued.
While they argued on the issue, the phone rang from the accused pocket and he pulled it out and tried to switch it off.
However, the witness snatched the phone from the accused and received the incoming call, after which he narrated the incident to the woman who had then returned to her shop, leading to the arrest of the accused.