‘Police Service Must Create New Image’

C/Supt (Rtd) Rev Abayie (M)

Sunyani, March 26, 2015 -A RETIRED senior police officer, Chief Superintendent Reverend Kofi Okodie Abayie, has advised police personnel in the country to take a cue from the current crisis in the Service to change their attitudes so as to redeem the image of the Police Service.
The Ghana Police Service has received an intense public bashing in the past few weeks following a major recruitment scam involving some top officers who are currently on interdiction. This has occurred at a time the Service has been tagged the number one most corrupt public institution in the country.
However, C/Supt (Rtd) Rev Abayie, Chaplain of the Brong-Ahafo Regional Police Church, said the Service could take advantage of the public criticisms to clean its house and be transformed to become one of the most respected public institutions in Ghana.
Speaking to DAILY GUIDE on Sunday, March 22 during the Quarterly Regional Police Church Parade in Sunyani, the retired senior officer, who doubles as the Regional Chairman of the National Association of Retired Police Officers (NARPO), said the recent happenings in the Service are a worry to him and NARPO, which held a national meeting recently to deliberate on them.
Using the analogy of the biblical Zacchaeus, a notorious tax collector and a cheat who changed his bad ways after his encounter with Jesus Christ, C/Supt (Rtd) Rev Abayie advised personnel of the Service who indulge in unprofessional practices such extortion and bribery, to turn a new leaf to save the image of the Police Service.
According to him, the Service has an enviable reputation to protect saying, “Majority of police officers don’t take bribes. I was a police officer for over 40 years and never took a bribe.”
Earlier, a consultant gynecologist at the Sunyani Regional Hospital, Dr JB Fordjour, had advised the congregants – made up of personnel and their spouses – to take good care of their bodies and health by desisting from smoking, alcoholism and immorality so as to remain strong to discharge their mandate.
Dr Fordjour recounted a number of instances where cases involving some personnel at the hospital were smoking and alcoholism, causing extensive damages to their kidneys and livers.
Source: Fred Tettey Alarti-Amoako

Demo Rocks Kintampo

A section of the demonstrators

Kintampo, March 25, 2015 -RESIDENTS OF Kintampo in the Brong-Ahafo Region have embarked on a massive demonstration to register their displeasure at the abandoned Kintampo dual carriage road which has become a death trap, killing more than 15 residents in the past year.
The peaceful non-partisan protest, led by the Concerned Citizens of Kintampo, saw hundreds of residents thronging the streets on Friday to put pressure on the municipal authorities to ensure that the contractor working on the road stretching from Kintampo Magazine to the New Market area returned to site to complete the project.
Currently, only one side of the dual carriage road has been completed, compelling pedestrians to compete with vehicles as well as heavy duty vehicles which usually park on the shoulders of the road for space.
“It is indeed very unfortunate and most regrettable for a town considered to be Ghana’s geographical centre… [to] have its major road half-way constructed…,” a petition signed by Jones Kwabena Addai, a leading member of the group, said.
The petitioners noted that a number of persons, numbering about 16, including a five-year-old girl and the NPP Youth Organiser of the area, had been killed through accidents on the road.
Their tragic deaths, they noted, could have been avoided if the road had been fully completed and zebra crossings, speed ramps and all the necessary road signs put at the appropriate places.
“The road as it is now is nothing short of a certified death trap that poses a great danger to both motorists and pedestrians…,” the group stated.
 DAILY GUIDE gathered that the confusion over who was to reconstruct the road started when the Techiman-Kintampo road was awarded without proper inclusion of the main Kintampo township road.
As a result, the contractor only decided to construct a single carriage as stipulated in his contract, leaving the other half in a deplorable state.
The demonstrators claimed that several promises were made about the road when the funeral of the late sister of the First Lady, Lordina Mahama, was held in Kintampo last year.
They however said nothing had since been done, thereby compelling them to protest over what they claimed was utter neglect by government.

Source: Fred Tettey Alarti-Amoako

Yamfo Killer Caged

The suspect

Duayaw Nkwanta, March 24, 2015 -The Duayaw Nkwanta District Magistrate Court presided over by Akusa-Ma Augustine, yesterday remanded into prison custody the young man who allegedly beheaded his cousin at a village near Yamfo in the Tano North District of the Brong-Ahafo Region on Saturday.
The accused, Sali Salifu, 24, will re-appear on Wednesday, April 8, 2015, having been charged with murder after allegedly severing the head of his cousin, Alimatu Awuni, 36.
Speaking to DAILY GUIDE on Monday, the Duayaw Nkwanta District Police Commander, Deputy Superintendent of Police Stephen Awuah Baffour, said the suspect claimed that he and the deceased had been in a grudge for some time now.
DSP Awuah Baffour indicated that the accused person mentioned to investigators that his cousin had threatened to kill him and so he decided to kill her first.
The district police commander denied public assertions that Sali Salifu was mentally ill. According to him, the police found out from their investigations that the accused was mentally sound, adding that his motive was to eliminate his cousin to prevent her from rather killing him.
The grudge, according to DSP Awuah Baffour, compelled the deceased to leave the Rubi village, close to Koope near Yamfo, sometime ago to put up with her brother in-law, one Kwaku Wusu, at Asuadei, a nearby village.
He said the deceased and the brother in-law only returned to Rubi a day before the incident, thinking that the grudge between her and the accused person had subsided.
Sali Salifu, it will be recalled, on Saturday afternoon allegedly slaughtered Alimatu at the time she was eating in their kitchen.
Kwaku Wusu, who was called to the scene, managed to grab Salifu and with the support of others, overpowered him, took away his machete and handed him over to the police.
The severed head and the remains of Alimatu are currently being kept at the St John of God Hospital.

Source: Fred Tettey Alarti-Amoako

US Ambassador Visits Cocoa Farm

Farmer harvesting cocoa

Kojokrom, March 21, 2015 -THE US Ambassador to Ghana, Gene A. Cretz, Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, Christopher Thornley and the Australian Trade Commissioner in West Africa, Gordon Chakaodza have embarked on historic visit to a cocoa farm in the Brong-Ahafo Region.

The visit to the 3-acre cocoa farm at Kojokrom, a village near Kenyasi in the Asutifi North District on Tuesday, March 17, was to afford the foreign envoys the opportunity to learn at firsthand the processes that farmers go through in getting the cocoa beans to the international market. 
The envoys also toured American owned multinational mining company, Newmont Ghana Gold Limited at Ahafo Kenyasi and the Chirano Gold Mine, an underground and open pit gold mine at Bibiani in the Western Region, owned by Toronto-based Kinross Gold Corporation.

Ambassador Cretz and his colleagues earlier paid a courtesy call on the Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, Eric Opoku, who welcomed them to the region.

Ambassador Cretz explained that the US, Canadian and the Australian governments have interest in cocoa and mining industries in Ghana, saying they would use the trip to explore various issues to make cocoa a sustainable crop.

He admitted that there has been improvement in the cocoa industry in Ghana with respect to creating access for children of farmers to education and eliminating children in hazardous work in cocoa farms.

Christopher Thornley, the Canadian High Commissioner, maintained that Canada has had very strong diplomatic ties with Ghana since 1957 and would ensure strengthen it to inure to the benefit of the two countries.

The envoys were happy with the trip to the cocoa farm and described it as “absolutely amassing.”

They were taken through the various processes such as harvesting the cocoa from the trees, breaking the pods, fermentation and drying the beans and final bagging of the dried beans.

The farm belongs to one of the members of the Kokoopa Farmers Association which is under the Cocoa Livelihoods Project being sponsored by the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF).

The project, which is being implemented in 208 communities in Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo and Western Regions, provides technical support to farmers to produce quality cocoa beans.

Present at the farm were Dr Francis Baah, Executive Director of Cocoa Health and Extension Division of Cocobod, Vincent Frimpong Manu, Country Coordinator of the Cocoa Livelihoods Programme, among others.

Meanwhile, Ambassador Cretz has announced that Ghana is being considered as the first country to join the Child Protection Compact Partnership (CPC Partnership).

The programme would involve the development of a multi-year plan to implement new and more effective policies and programmes to reduce child trafficking and improve child protection in Ghana. 

The Partnership aims to bolster  the efforts of the Government of Ghana and civil society organizations to tackling child sex trafficking and forced child labour in Ghana.

Presenting the keynote address at the launch of the International Justice Mission office in Ghana, Ambassador Cretz said the partnership would be a five-year, $5 million innovative effort to combat child trafficking.

Source: Fred Tettey Alarti-Amoako

Sunyani Robber Jailed 20 Years

The convict

Sunyani, March 23, 2015 -RICHARD AKWASI Yeboah, 21, was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment by a Sunyani Circuit Court on Friday after he was found guilty of robbery and illegal possession of firearm.

Akwasi Yeboah, a resident of Berekum in the Brong-Ahafo Region, was accosted on Thursday, March 19, at Nkwabeng, a suburb of Sunyani by the residents of the community during a robbery operation.

Narrating the incident to DAILY GUIDE, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Christopher Tawiah, Brong-Ahafo Regional Police Public Relations Officer, said at about 12:30 noon, the Regional Police Commander, DCOP Maxwell Sakipasgo Atingane, received information about the robbery and directed the mobile patrol team to move to the crime scene.

According to the PRO, when the police patrol team got to the scene, they saw the convict, whose legs and hands had been tied with nylon rope on the ground.

The residents explained that Akwasi Yeboah broke into the room of one John Amankona Bediako and stole a number of items, including cash of GH¢1,688, Samsung mobile phone, laptop and DVD player.

When the victim raised the alarm, the convict took to his heels and fired his pistol indiscriminately at the mob who chased him.

The PRO said Akwasi Yeboah fired the gun until he run out of bullets, adding that grabbed him and subjected him to severe beatings. The police retrieved his pistol and some of the stolen items.

ASP Tawiah said the police rescued him when they got to the scene and conveyed him to the Regional Police Headquarters. He was later transported to the hospital for treatment and arraigned before the court.

Meanwhile, the Regional Police Command has advised the general public not to resort to mob justice anytime they arrest a criminal, saying that lynching of suspects is prohibited by law.

Source: Fred Tettey Alarti-Amoako

Man Beheads Auntie

The suspect

Yamfo, March 23, 2015 -THE YAMFO township in the Tano North District of the Brong-Ahafo Region was thrown into a state of shock after a young man did the unthinkable by cutting off the head of his own auntie over the weekend.
Salia Yakubu, 24, according to the police, ended the life of his auntie only identified as Alimatu, 35, a mother of five, in the afternoon of Saturday March 21 at a village called Koope, near Yamfo.
The Station Officer of the Yamfo Police Station, Chief Inspector Alex Awuah Asamoah, who confirmed the incident to DAILY GUIDE, said the police got wind of the bizarre incident around 12noon on Saturday.
He said they stormed the scene and conveyed both the deceased and the suspect to the station and later transferred them to Duayaw Nkwanta, where the body of the deceased was deposited at the St John of God Hospital Morgue while the suspect was kept in police cells.
C/Insp Awuah Asamoah told DAILY GUIDE that the suspect confided in the police during their preliminary interrogation that he did not know what came over him to cause the heinous atrocity.
When asked whether the suspect was mentally sick, the police officer indicated that they were yet to find out. He however said the suspect showed no signs of mental illness.

The severed head

Residents told DAILY GUIDE that the suspect had one time attempted to kill his own father, but the father was rescued by his family people who reported the action of the suspect to the police and he was arrested and later released after a caution.

The remains of the deceased

Explaining how the whole incident happened, residents told the paper that the victim visited her family at the village who were then breaking cocoa pods on their cocoa farm.
They said when the victim went to the hut to eat, the suspect pursued her there and killed her.

Source: Fred Tettey Alarti-Amoako

Suma-Ahenkro Gets University Campus

Odeneho Dr Affram Brempong

Sunyani, March 18, 2015 -THE CHIEFS and people of the Suma Traditional Area in the Jaman North District of the Brong-Ahafo Region are to construct a satellite campus of the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) at Suma-Ahenkro.

The huge self-help project to be constructed through the resources of the people is expected to begin this month and end in August, where the first batch of students would be admitted on the campus by September 2015.

This was announced by Odeneho Dr Affram Brempong III, Paramount Chief of the Suma Traditional Area, during a press conference in Sunyani on Friday, March 13, to formally announce the celebration of the first Suma Akwantu Kese Festival.

The week-long festival under the theme: “Suma, United For Peace and Development,” would be held from March 23-29 mixed with rich cultural display.

Nana Dr Affram Brempong disclosed that the sod-cutting of the university project would be done during the festival.

He explained that one-mile square land has been offered for the project and plans are afoot to construct four lecture theatres, administration block with offices, computer laboratory and library to kick-start the university in September.

According to him, the traditional area is not relying on government for the project as they are poised to use the funds that will be realised from the festival and with the support of the Suma residents abroad to commence the project.

The Suma Omanhene also disclosed that the area is expected to benefit from a lime juice processing factory to be sited at Suma-Ahenkro where about 2,000 unskilled labours would be engaged in the initial stages.

Franked by his Queen mother, Nana Akwama Toprefo Odiakotene II, and other traditional leaders, Nana Dr Affram Brempong explained that the traditional council initiated the Suma Akwantu Kese festival to be celebrated alongside the Munifie Yam Festival to showcase the rich cultural heritage of the people.

He pointed out that the Suma Akwantu Kese Festival will be rotated from community to another every year where the funds raised would be retained in the town and used to develop that particular community.

Explaining the basis of the new festival, the chief said the Suma people migrated from Akwamu in the Eastern Region to the present location somewhere in the 16th century.

He said the journey took them over 100 years where many lost their lives along the way before they finally settled in their present location.

The traditional leader, therefore, appealed to the people of the area to unite and support his efforts in promoting the development of the traditional area.

Source: Fred Tettey Alarti-Amoako

Jaman South NADMO Coordinator In Trouble Over Assault

The victim at the hospital

Drobo, March 17, 2015 -The Drobo Police in the Brong-Ahafo Region have arrested Samuel K. Kusi, the district coordinator of National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), for assaulting a constituency officer of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Mr Kusi, who doubles as the Jaman South National Democratic Congress (NDC) Constituency youth organiser, was grabbed on Friday, March 13, after allegedly mercilessly beating Stephen Kwabena Afriyie, NPP’s constituency research and elections officer of the area on Thursday.
The suspect allegedly assaulted the victim at a police station him on admission at the Drobo Polyclinic for more than 24 hours.
The NADMO coordinator is being charged with assault and causing damage, the officer in-charge of the case, confirmed to DAILY GUIDE yesterday.
In a press conference addressed by NPP constituency executives in Jaman North on Friday, the NPP accused the Jaman South District Chief Executive, (DCE), Madam Dora Tamea, for reportedly masterminding the callous attack on the NPP stalwart.
However, the DCE had vehemently denied any role in the attack. She told DAILY GUIDE that she knew nothing about the incident, adding that she would never hatch such evil plot against the NPP man.
Giving the facts of the incident, the Communications Officer for the Jaman South NPP, Samuel Obeng Takyi, said on Thursday, March 12, around 2:30pm, the victim went to Japekrom to meet his friends.
While they were chatting, they saw the official vehicle of the DCE passing by carrying the suspect and one other NADMO staff called Edward.
They said that after about five minutes later, the victim saw Edward approaching them and taking pictures of them. So he confronted Edward and asked him to delete those pictures which nearly ended up in a fight.
According to the NPP, the victim left the scene, but Edward called his boss (the suspect) that he had been assaulted by the victim, where the suspect came to pick him to lodge a complaint against the victim at the police station.
When the victim heard of this, he decided to voluntarily go to the police station to tell his side of the story.
According to the victim himself, immediately he reached the premises of the police station, the suspect pounced on him, gave him hefty blows severally and pushed him with his motorbike into a nearby gutter. The motor fell on the victim as he struggled in the gutter.
It took the intervention of two police personnel on duty and a civilian who rescued the victim from the hands of the NADMO coordinator. He had bruises all over his body and experienced internal body pains.
According to the NPP, the victim has become the target because of his recent exposé of some of the alleged wrongdoings in the administration of the DCE, some of which are the alleged distribution of GH¢500 for each candidates of the botched district assembly elections perceived to be members of the NDC to run their campaign and the alleged distribution of chemicals and fertilisers among NDC officials meant for farmers.
 Source: Fred Tettey Alarti-Amoako

7 Nabbed Over Tain DCE Memo

The barricaded office of the DCE

Nsawkaw, March 12, 2015 -The police in the Brong-Ahafo region have arrested seven persons at Nsawkaw in the tain district believed to have played various roles in the tuesday violent demonstration against the District Chief Executive (DCE) of the area, Jones Samuel Tawiah.
The regional Police Crime officer, superintendent Alhaji Maama Arhin, who confirmed the arrest to DAILY GUIDE said the suspects were yesterday arraigned before a Sunyani district magistrate court and had been remanded into one-week prison custody. they were charged with rioting and causing harm.
The suspects are, David Ofosu, 50; Kwaku Seidu, 36; Yaw Yeboah, 32; King William Abebrese, 37; Atta Kwadwo, 21; Nketia Alexander, 32 and Frank Gyan, 35.
According to supt Arhin, the suspects were among demonstrators who barricaded the office of the DCE at the district assembly and further went to the official residence of the DCE and succeeded in destroying air conditioner and glasses.
he said the timely intervention of the police prevented the irate demonstrators from vandalizing the entire structure.
The police chief disclosed that the Nsawkaw township where the demonstration took place, was very calm as a number of police cum military patrol team had been dispatched to the town to maintain law and order.
On Tuesday, March 10, some residents of Nsawkaw staged a massive protest against the DCE, for allegedly making some disparaging remarks about the district capital.
According to the residents, the DCE, who hails from Seikwa, also in the district, described Nsawkaw, the capital, as a village in his quest to move the 58th independence anniversary district parade to Seikwa.
Though the dCe had been made to apologise to the chiefs and people of nsawkaw about his alleged remarks when the regional minister intervened, the youth of the town are demanding his removal.
They have vowed to make the district ungovernable until Mr. Tawiah had been sacked from office.
They warned the DCE, who fled the town during the disturbances, not to return to the capital again, threatening that there would be trouble if he came back.
At the moment, most males, especially the youth, have fled the town, leaving only women and children, for fear of being arrested by the military/ police patrol team.
Source: From Fred Tettey Alarti -Amoako

Tain DCE Banished

Hon. Jones Samuel Tawiah

Tain, March, 11, 2015 -The District Chief Executive (DCE) of Tain in the Brong-Ahafo Region, Jones Samuel Tawiah, has been banished from Nsawkaw, the district capital, by the youth of the town.
The beleaguered DCE has in effect, been stopped from performing his official duties in the district assembly where his office has been sealed off by the youth.
DAILY GUIDE can confirm that the DCE has also been forced out of his official residence at Nsawkaw and as at press time yesterday his whereabouts could not be established.
The youth of Tain yesterday staged a serious demonstration against the DCE; stormed his office and locked it up.
They warned him not to come back to Nsawkaw again, threatening that there would be bloodshed if he returned to the town, and declaring him a fugitive of the area.
The spokesperson for the irate youth, Samuel Fosu Gyan, who spoke to the media, said that until the DCE was removed by the president, the youth would not rest.
According to the Nsawkaw youth, the DCE had shown gross disrespect to the chiefs and people of the town and thereby denigrating the district capital.
They explained that prior to Ghana’s 58^th independence anniversary celebration last Friday, the people of Nsawkaw got wind of a move by Mr, Jones Samuel Tawiah to push the district celebrations to Seikwa, his hometown.
When the youth questioned him about the speculation, he purportedly snubbed them and went on air and allegedly made some disparaging statement to the effect that Nsawkaw is a village and so does not deserve to be the district capital; and that Seikwa is more developed than the district capital, and therefore deserved to host the independence parade.
On the day of the anniversary, 6^th March, the youth stormed the residence of the DCE in the early hours and held him hostage, but later released him. This prevented the district from marking the 58^th milestone.
According to reports, the following day, 7^th March, the Regional Minister, Eric Opoku, attempted to resolve the impasse between the DCE and the chiefs of Nsawkaw, during which the DCE was made to come out publicly to withdraw his earlier statement and apologize to the people.
However, the youth insisted that he must vacate his office and appealed to President Mahama to sack him immediately to forestall any mayhem in the district.
It would be recalled that angry youth of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Banda, a sister district, in August last year, chased out the then DCE, Alex Bonsu, from office.
Mr. Bonsu narrowly escaped death as his party youth attempted to lynch him and pursued him into the bush. He had his official vehicle and office vandalized and later given the sack by the president.

Source: Fred Tettey Alarti-Amoako

BA Loses Another Radio Presenter

Ohene Gyan

Sunyani, March 10, 2015 -Another Radio Presenter in the Brong-Ahafo Region, Ohene Gyan, popularly known on air as Ogundele, who doubled as the Programmes Manager of Nkoranza-based Jerryson FM, is reported dead.
Ohene Gyan, 35, died in the early hours of Monday, March 9, at the Sunyani Regional Hospital after a protracted ailment.
His demise is second in the year in the region after Kwaku Baffour Asare aka Winner Man, an ace broadcast journalist at Dormaa FM, the morning show host of the station, also passed on.
Ohene Gyan, according to his colleagues, got married about a year ago and shortly after the marriage suffered stroke. “He has since been absent from work seeking medical treatment. Unfortunately, we heard of his sudden departure this morning in Sunyani,” one of the staff told DAILY GUIDE yesterday.
Source: Fred Tettey Alarti-Amoako