MAN WITH WEAPONS ARRESTED IN BAWKU ...Being processed for court (PAGE 3)

ONE of the top advisers of the Bawku Naba, Mr John Awunbila Ndego, who was arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle arms and ammunition to Bawku, will be put before court today.
According to the Upper East Regional Crime Officer, Superintendent Victor Seth Agbetornyo, the accused was in custody while the police were conducting further investigations.
Mr Ndego, who is also the assistant bursar of the Bawku Senior High School, was found carrying two AK 47 assault rifles, a pistol and 153 rounds of ammunition.
The Officer Commanding the Airborne Force, Major Orlando Agbeko, said the military had been attracted to the accused when he was buying fuel because his demeanour was suspicious.
He said the accused was wearing fugu and had a fertiliser bag tied to his motorbike when he was arrested.
The rifles and the ammunition were allegedly concealed in a briefcase which Ndego was conveying on his motorbike to Bawku.
Bawku and its environs are under curfew, following fresh fighting in the municipality. Under the terms of the curfew, persons in the affected areas are debarred from carrying arms, ammunition or any offensive weapons.
Meanwhile, Togolese government officials and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) say large numbers of Ghanaians fleeing the ethnic conflict in the Upper East Region are creating a humanitarian problem for Togo, reports Ebow Godwin, Lome.
A Togolese government source confirmed in Lome that “hundreds of persons, including old men, women and children, caught up in the ethnic crossfire between the Mamprusis and Kusasis in Bawku are fleeing in droves to seek refuge in northern Togo”.
Togo national television over the weekend showed footage of a large number of Ghanaian refugees being presented with food items by representatives of the Togolese Head of State, Faure Gnassingbe, at UNHCR temporary resettlement centres at Cinkasse and Dankpen in northern Togo.
Although some of the groups involved in the ethnic conflict in Bawku have relatives in Togo, officials of the UNHCR agree that the influx of the refugees from Ghana is creating a new humanitarian problem for Togo.
Hundreds of other residents fleeing the conflict zone in Bawku are said to be heading for Burkina Faso.
The latest fighting erupted Saturday, last week, following the stoning to death of a Mamprusi man at a town called Buabula, near Sabongeri, a community of Kusasi people, after he had gone out to search for his missing horse. That killing led to the massacre of a dozen Kusasis in a retaliatory attack by Mamprusis in Bawku.

RED CROSS SETS UP TENTS FOR BAWKU CONFLICT VICTIMS (BACK PAGE)

THE International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has intensified its efforts in Bawku to ensure that members of the public gain access to humanitarian services in view of the conflict in the municipality.
The organisation in collaboration with the security agencies in the area intends to set up tents at vantage points to attend to persons in need of first aid and other assistance from time to time. The tents will also serve as avenues for people who feel threatened to seek protection.
The officer-in-charge of the Red Cross in Bawku, Mr Alhassan Asana, who disclosed this to the Daily Graphic on Wednesday, said in consultation with the security agencies the Red Cross had mapped out appropriate locations where the tents would be mounted for that purpose.
He disclosed that already 19 displaced persons were being sheltered in the house of one of his officers and said once the tents were erected more people would be offered assistance.
The ICRC is an impartial, neutral and independent organisation whose exclusively humanitarian mission is to protect the lives and dignity of victims of war and internal violence and to provide them with assistance.
Mr Asana seized the opportunity to appeal to the people of Bawku to live in unity and exercise restraint as the government intensified its efforts to work for peace in the municipality and its environs.
Meanwhile basic schools in the Bawku Municipality are automatically on holiday due to the curfew imposed on the municipality.
The Ministry of the Interior on Monday, June 23, 2008 imposed a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew on the Bawku Municipality and its environs following hostilities between Kusasis and Mamprusis.
However, following sporadic shooting on both sides of the feuding factions, the Upper East Regional Security Council (REGSEC), in consultation with the Bawku Municipal Security Committee, has reviewed the time to 12 noon to 6 a.m.
A teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity, expressed concern at the latest development and warned that should the situation persist, the future of the children could be jeopardised.
In a related development, a visit to the Bawku Presbyterian Hospital on Wednesday revealed that the entire facility had been uninhabited as a result of the violence in the area.
Meanwhile, some residents have called on the government to declare a state of emergency in Bawku for two weeks and empower the security agencies to implement emergency plans to deal with the conflict in the municipality.
Others have also denounced the continuous imposition of curfew on the area, stressing that it was not helping the issues. “Rather than imposing the curfew, the government must consider taking drastic measures to bring the situation under control,” one resident told the Daily Graphic.

POOR SANITATION HINDERS NHIS — DARKO (PAGE 29)

THE Minister for Local Government Rural Development and Environment, Mr Kwadwo Adjei Darko, has hinted that the National Health Insurance Scheme and other critical national programmes intended to increase school attendance had the propensity of grinding to a halt, if sanitation-related issues are not handled with the urgency and importance they deserve.
In a speech read on his behalf by the Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Mrs Agnes Chigabatia, at the fifth national quadrennial congress of the Ghana Environmental Health Officers Association (GEHOA) at Bolgatanga, Mr Adjei Darko emphasised the need for the society to work with the government on maintaining a clean environment, if the total disease burden was to be reduced.
He alluded to the fact that a greater number of the top 10 diseases, which include malaria, typhoid fever, worm infestation and cholera reported at the various health facilities were sanitation-related.
He said this, therefore, called for a change in strategy to the approach in the handling of hygiene and sanitation issues as a nation.
The theme for the congress, which was attended by over 200 participants drawn from all over the country, was “environmental sanitation for dignity, health, poverty reduction and development”.
The minister said poor sanitation, unhygienic conditions and unsafe water claimed the lives of most children under the age of five every year and added that in Ghana, a total of $22 million was spent on malarial treatment alone each year.
He pointed out that without improvement in sanitation, none of the millennium development goals, which the world had committed itself to, would be achieved.
“When the Environmental Health Officer conducts his/her duties judiciously, it is estimated that improved sanitation in our communities could reduce diarrhoea-related cases in young children by more than one-third.
He disclosed that the draft revised national environmental sanitation policy was before Cabinet for consideration, while a national strategy and implementation plan was being developed and expressed the hope that by the close of this year, the documents would have been ready.
The outgoing President of GEHOA, Mr Clement Kaba Bawunia, noted with concern the threat posed by desertification and advocated the need for every Ghanaian to plant at least one tree to combat the phenomenon.
Mr Abednego Chigumba from UNICEF called for resources for the environmental health training institution, if it was to achieve its mandate. He also called on members of the association to place more emphasis on research to come up with issues that would be of interest to the public.
In a solidarity message, the Student Representative Council President for the Accra School of Hygiene, Mr Michael Ewurah, said it was appalling that the three schools of hygiene in the country were not given the necessary attention when it came to solving problems of national concern. This, he said, had reflected on the poor performance of the officers on the field of work.
He expressed the hope that the government, NGOs, opinion leaders, ministers, traditional rulers and individuals at all levels would put more emphasis on preventive health services rendered by environmental health officers and other professionals to the communities in order to save the billions of cedis spent on preventable diseases with little or no success.

NPP FOOT SOLDIERS MUST DEVISE STRATEGIES FOR ELECTION 2008 (PAGE 16)

Story:Benjamin Xornam Glover, Bolgatanga.
Foot soldiers of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Upper East Region have been called upon to warm up and generate new campaign strategies to win more voters for the party to ensure massive victory for the party in 2008.They have also been urged to embark on a massive education in all communities on the party's capabilities to retain power.The Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Mrs Agnes A. Chigabatia, made the call at the weekend during the re-launch ceremony of “One Touch Club”, a youth campaign organization within the NPP in the Bolgatanga Constituency.The club was officially outdoored by the Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, in 2004, with the objective of uniting the rank and file of the party, with the view to winning elections “one touch”.Mrs. Chigabatia, who is also the MP for Builsa North, advised party members to stop the pull-him-down attitude and the backbiting and forge ahead in unity to ensure massive victory for the party.“We need to close our ranks by addressing the bickering, hate and the seeming power struggle that is going on in the party, especially during the primaries of the party across the country,” she said.She called for the use of dialogue and the appropriate channels given by the party’s constitution to address the challenges, rather than resorting to demonstrations, which were “tantamount to washing our dirty linen in public”.The MP urged the party faithful to be circumspect in their pronouncements in order not to inflame passions, which could threaten the peace and stability of the country.Mrs. Chigabatia, who catalogued her party’s developmental projects in the country since the NPP assumed the reigns of government, appealed to sympathisers of the party to intensify their campaigns to retain the party in power.The Regional Organiser of NPP, Mr Mahamoud Mahama, debunked assertions by political opponents that the introduction of mass transport services was aimed at collapsing the operations of the private transporters, stressing that those were some of the attempts employed by the opposition to deceive the people.The Chairman of the Club, Alhaji Alhassan Abdul Rahman, in a speech read on his behalf, called for unity among all members of the party.Madam Alima Mercy Musah, NPP parliamentary candidate for Bolgatanga Constituency, said with hard work and support from members of the party, she was poised to win the parliamentary seat for the party.

HUNDREDS FLEE BAWKU ...As situation remains tense (LEAD STORY)

Story: Benjamin Xornam Glover, Bawku

HUNDREDS of residents are fleeing the conflict zone in Bawku and heading for neighbouring communities in Burkina Faso and Togo following sporadic gunshots in the municipality on Monday night.
An immigration officer at the Kulungugu Border Post who asked not to be named told the Daily Graphic that majority of those fleeing were women and children, adding that they were mainly of the Moshie ethnic group.
The source said those fleeing claimed that they had relatives in those countries and hoped to live there until the situation in Bawku improved.
He said people in Kulungugu were currently living in fear and could no longer go about their normal duties freely.
“My brother, people living in Kulungugu rely on Bawku for everything, be it foodstuffs, hospital or banking services, and given the intensity of fighting, we are afraid to go out there. With the month coming to an end, some of us are worried whether we can go to Bawku for our salaries from the banks,” he said.
“In fact some of us are living in fear because we live in rented apartments in town, and with the new tactics adopted by the feuding factions, we are virtually living in fear as we do not know when and who next those involve in the fighting would attack,” the Immigration officer said.
Last Saturday, one Zackaria Abagre, a Mamprusi man, was allegedly stoned to death at Buabula, near Sabongeri, a Kusasi community, after he had gone out in search of his missing horse.
This led to the massacre of about a dozen people in a retaliatory attack.
In the latest development, seven persons including five children who sustained various degrees of injury have been transferred to the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital. And a man, identified as Issaka Hasmin, 24, a Moshie, was gunned down at a suburb called Zemaasa.
On Monday, amidst heavy rains there were sporadic gunshots all over the Bawku township, and, according to a source, the shooting was so intense that people in far away Kulungungu could hear the shots, which triggered the mass fleeing of residents.
It would be recalled that in May this year when there was resurgence in the fighting in Bawku, some people fled to Goulongousi, a town in Togo, to seek refuge. Those who fled, after their houses and shops had been burnt, were mainly Mamprusis from Pusiga.
Although some of them were said to have returned others are still seeking refuge in that town.

SECURITY FORCES ROUND UP 93 ...In Bawku conflict (BACK PAGE)

NINETY-THREE persons have been rounded up in a swoop conducted by security forces in connection with the killing of over a dozen people in Bawku over the weekend.
The Upper East Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Ofosu-Mensah Gyeabour, told the Daily Graphic that the death toll in the latest clash had also risen to 13.
Last Saturday, one Zackaria Abagre, a Mamprusi man, was brutally killed at Buabula, near Sabongeri, a Kusasi community, after he had gone out in search of his missing horse.
Later in the night, it was alleged that some group of Mamprusis disguised themselves in military attire and stormed the area and attacked four houses and murdered 10 people, mostly aged women and children. The males were said to have fled the area.
He disclosed that the death toll had risen to 13, adding that on Sunday night, one man identified as a Moshie was shot in the head at Patelmi, a suburb of Bawku.
DCOP Ofosu-Mensah Gyeabour, who gave the ages of the dead as ranging from five to 80, said in addition to the 93 arrested in the swoop, six others were picked up after the death of Abagre.
He indicated that seven persons including an eight-month-old baby girl were on admission at the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital.
He expressed concern at the new dimension to the conflict, particularly the butchering of women and children, and said the police and the military had intensified their patrol in the town to avert an escalation of the violence.
Meanwhile, the order by the Municipal Security Council for people to remain indoors has been relaxed. According to the Municipal Chief Executive and Chairman of MUSEC, Mr Abdulai Abanga, the dusk to dawn curfew was still in force in Bawku.
Between 6 p.m. on Saturday and 6 a.m. on Monday, residents of Bawku were ordered not to step out of their homes, the decision, according to the MCE, was taken to forestall any mayhem in the municipality. When reached, Mr Abanga said the decision to relax the order was to enable people to get access to food and water.

ASANTEMAN UNION SUPPORTS DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN BOLGA (PAGE 40)

THE Upper East Regional branch of Asante Kotoko Kro Ye Kuo, a benevolent association of sons and daughters of Asanteman, has raised GH¢2,500 in aid of a GH¢5,000 cassava processing machine and other development projects in Bolgatanga. The gesture is the association’s contribution towards the development of Bolgatanga in particular and the region in general. The event, which also marked the official inauguration of the association in the region, attracted dignitaries including the Deputy Regional Minister, Mrs Agnes Asangalisah Chigabatia, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary nominee for the Bolgatanga constituency, Madam Alima Musah, and the Northern Regional Chairman of Asante Kotoko Football Club, Nana Addai Gyaeten. Speaking at the function, the deputy regional minister praised the association for its unity and patriotism towards the development of the region. Mrs Chigabatia urged the people to rally behind the NPP government in rebuilding the country, stressing that since it took over the administration of the country, many communities had been provided with development projects. The Chairman of the association, Mr Bediako-Agyeman, reminded the members that the success of the association was due largely to the respect they had been giving to the principles of democracy. Mr Bediako-Agyeman urged the members to continue to hold onto the tenets of democracy, which were fairness, transparency, respect for individual opinions and dissenting views, and also respect the authority of the association. He paid tribute to the founding fathers, mothers, dedicated executive members and members of the association, who had supported and continue to support the growth of the association. The Secretary of the association, Mr P.K. Adonteng, said the aim of the association was to build it to become a progressive group to seek the welfare of its members, manage issues and resolve the problems that might confront them. He said another objective of the association was to bring all Ashantis resident in region into a strong and unified association and encourage the members to maintain a high standard of discipline to uphold the prestige of the office of the occupant of the Golden Stool. According to Mr Adonteng, the association currently had a membership of 120. He stated that plans were afoot to establish a welfare fund to assist members who might face financial problems.