Page 31: Daily Graphic, March 25, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
A SECURITY analyst, Mr Emmanuel Sowatey, has described the weapons buy-back move by the Northern Regional Security Council (REGSEC) as wrong and out of place.
He said the initiative of the REGSEC, although laudable, should have addressed the causes of the demand-supply chain of the weapons, adding that weapons buy-back scheme had always been part of a major peace process and was never taken in isolation.
Mr Sowatey told the Daily Graphic on Tuesday that without addressing those concerns, the initiative of the REGSEC would only go to increase the stockpile of weapons in the region.
He explained that the REGSEC should have identified and indicated the type of weapons being retrieved because the GH¢300 offer to any resident who will surrender his weapon to the security agencies was ambiguous.
According to him, an AK 47 cost about GH¢1,000 and no one would return that weapon for GH¢300 while a locally manufactured gun cost almost GH¢100.
Mr Sowatey said although those with locally manufactured guns could hand over theirs, they could return to buy two or three more, since the local manufacturing industry was unregulated.
Moreover, he said, the culture of the people in Tamale should have been taken into consideration before any action was taken.
He explained that in a culture where possession of a gun was a sign of manhood, nothing would motivate any individual to hand over his weapon.
Moreover, he said, the passion which the people had for chieftaincy and other cultural practices would also not encourage them to hand over the weapons.
“They would prefer to fight to protect such high-held passions,” he said.
Mr Sowatey said another problem which needed to be addressed to reassure the people was the criminal justice system.
According to him, people resort to acquiring arms to protect themselves when they do not trust or have confidence in the justice system.
He said if the police failed to arrest and the prosecutors failed to prosecute while the courts could not be trusted to deliver justice because of perceived corruption, the people would certainly hold on to their guns.
Mr Sowatey stressed the need for those in possession of legally acquired arms to renew their licences annually while members of the public should support the security agencies against gun-running.
The REGSEC on Monday extended the period given to residents of the Tamale metropolis to surrender illegal arms in their possession to the security agencies by one more month.
It also made an offer of GH¢300 incentive to any resident who would surrender his weapon to the security agencies.
As of last Friday when the deadline ended no weapons had been surrendered as had been directed by the Northern Regional Minister.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Police hunt for MD of 'susu' firm
Page 3: Daily Graphic, March 25, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE police have mounted a search for Israel Aduah, the Managing Director of Blessed God Financial Services, a ‘susu’ collection firm, for suspected theft.
Israel is alleged to have gone to seven branches of the company to collect the deposits of contributors, worth several millions of Ghana cedis, and bolted.
A source at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service told the Daily Graphic that the incident took place in December 2008.
It said Israel went to Apam and Kasoa, both in the Central Region, Ashalley Botwe, New Fadama, Israel Junction and Tema, all in the Greater Accra Region, and Nkawkaw in the Eastern Region and collected the deposits but had since not been heard of or seen.
It said the agents of Blessed God Financial Services claimed that it was the practice for the suspect to collect the deposits and later bring the amount for pay-back to the contributors.
The source said on that particular occasion, nothing had been heard of the suspect, as his cell phones had been switched off and he had also packed out of his residence in Accra.
It said clients of the company in the affected branches had been demanding their contributions but the agents had not been able to pay them.
The source, therefore, appealed to any member of the public who knew the whereabouts of Aduah, who is five feet two inches tall and native of Navrongo, to contact the Commercial Crime Unit of the CID or the nearest police station.
The source said the suspect was believed to be hiding in Aflao, Nkawkaw, Navrongo, the Brong Ahafo or Central regions.
It said the police suspected that Israel might be using another name and, therefore, appealed to the public to help in arresting him for him to face the consequences of his actions.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE police have mounted a search for Israel Aduah, the Managing Director of Blessed God Financial Services, a ‘susu’ collection firm, for suspected theft.
Israel is alleged to have gone to seven branches of the company to collect the deposits of contributors, worth several millions of Ghana cedis, and bolted.
A source at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service told the Daily Graphic that the incident took place in December 2008.
It said Israel went to Apam and Kasoa, both in the Central Region, Ashalley Botwe, New Fadama, Israel Junction and Tema, all in the Greater Accra Region, and Nkawkaw in the Eastern Region and collected the deposits but had since not been heard of or seen.
It said the agents of Blessed God Financial Services claimed that it was the practice for the suspect to collect the deposits and later bring the amount for pay-back to the contributors.
The source said on that particular occasion, nothing had been heard of the suspect, as his cell phones had been switched off and he had also packed out of his residence in Accra.
It said clients of the company in the affected branches had been demanding their contributions but the agents had not been able to pay them.
The source, therefore, appealed to any member of the public who knew the whereabouts of Aduah, who is five feet two inches tall and native of Navrongo, to contact the Commercial Crime Unit of the CID or the nearest police station.
The source said the suspect was believed to be hiding in Aflao, Nkawkaw, Navrongo, the Brong Ahafo or Central regions.
It said the police suspected that Israel might be using another name and, therefore, appealed to the public to help in arresting him for him to face the consequences of his actions.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Ghanaians and danger of drug menace
Pages 23 & 30: Daily Graphic, March 23, 2009.
Article: Albert K. Salia
"Concern about a potential failed state - not Pakistan, not Somalia, but California's neighbor Mexico - is mounting in Washington as an all-out war involving 45,000 Mexican military personnel fails to quell rising drug violence that is spilling from such Mexican cities as Tijuana into the United States. An estimated 6,290 drug-related murders occurred in Mexico last year, six times the standard definition of a civil war, said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a leading scholar on the issue at the Brookings Institution " - San Francisco Chronicle, Thursday, March 12, 2009.
The impact of drugs on our society are numerous and one can hardly find anybody who is a drug-addict and is loved by society. Drug dealing has become a multi-billion dollar business world-wide, permeating and affecting our lives in covert and overt ways. Drug dealing is no longer a violation of the law neither is it just a social problem. It has manifested in increased organised and syndicated criminality, political and economic subversion that threatens vital democratic institutions and in fact, the nation’s security.
The negative consequences of drug abuse affect not only individuals who abuse drugs but also their families and friends, various businesses, and government resources.
Social consequences
The most obvious effects of drug abuse — which are manifested in the individuals who abuse drugs — include illhealth, sickness and ultimately, death.
Children of individuals who abuse drugs often are abused or neglected as a result of the individuals' preoccupation with drugs. Children whose parents and other family members abuse drugs often are physically or emotionally abused and often lack proper immunisations, medical care, dental care, and necessities such as food, water, and shelter.
The fragmentation of many families for example, is due to the wedge represented by substance abuse; many studies have found that family disintegration correlates more strongly with drug abuse than with poverty. Of course, the relationship is two-way; a study on Thailand, for example, has found that increasing use of heroin and psychotropic substances is due in part to the breakdown of traditional family structures and values. In any case, there is a negative link between drugs and the family.
The Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Antonio Maria Costa, notes that, "drugs are also poisoning the region’s (West Africa) youth since the foot soldiers in this growing trade are paid for their services with cocaine. As a result, the vulnerability of West Africa to drugs and crime is deepening even further".
A consultant psychiatrist and a member of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), Dr J. B. Asare, also notes that, “the use of drugs in Ghana is mainly an activity of the youth. About 80 per cent of drug related admissions to the Accra Psychiatric Hospital are between the ages of 16 and 29 years. As more youth become addicted, our investment in our children and the human resource base of our country is being threatened”.
The correlation between drug use and prostitution, while too often portrayed as due to an underlying moral deficiency, is more likely due to a decision to finance the former activity by way of the latter. Indeed, at the heart of the matter is not some inherent criminal deviance which brings together the realms of drugs and crime, but the ability of drugs to act as a lucrative wholesale and retail commodity for which legitimate entrepreneurs will not complete.
The negative impact of drug abuse on health is scientifically well-established and documented. The health costs of a drug addict appear to be some 80 percent higher than those of an average citizen in the same age group. Substances commonly associated with drug-related deaths are cocaine, heroin and other opiates, barbiturates and amphetamines. Substances such as benzodiazepines, hallucinogens and cannabis can have a negative impact on health but are not usually associated with death. The link between injecting drug use (IDU) and the spread of HIV/AIDS is also well recognised; today, at the global level, some 22 per cent of the world's HIV/AIDS population injects drugs. The worldwide HIV-prevalence rate for injecting drug users is between 40-50 per cent.
Crime and criminality
Drug-related crime occurs primarily in the form of trafficking-related criminal activity, including violence between groups in competition for increased market share at the wholesale and retail levels. The current unrest in Mexico, which has claimed millions of lives is a test case.
In his piece; "Drugs, Violence and Economics", David Friedman contends that the link between drugs and violent crime could occur in three ways: violent crime by consumers of drugs, violent crime associated with the production and distribution of drugs, or violent crime directly associated with the attempt to enforce drug prohibition.
For the case of crime by drug consumers, two mechanisms are commonly asserted, with opposite implications. One is drugs as an input to violent crime–people committing crimes under the influence of drugs that they otherwise would not commit.
Violent crime by people involved in the distribution network for drugs might also come about by a variety of mechanisms. One possibility, is that violence occurs because people in that industry have wealth in highly portable forms — drugs and cash — which make them obvious targets for theft or robbery, and since calling the police is not a practical option they must use private violence instead to protect themselves.
A second, suggested by Jeffrey Miron, is that violence occurs as a form of dispute resolution among people who cannot use legal channels because their disputes are occurring in an illegal industry
A third, and rather different possibility is that violent crime represents rent seeking in the competition among suppliers. Suppose, as much anecdotal evidence suggests, that drug distribution often occurs through local monopoly providers. Their profits depend in part on the area they control. So we would expect competition between adjacent firms for territory. One form such competition might take would be violence by agents of one firm against agents, or possibly customers, of another.
Besides, there are crimes such as armed robberies, rape and other violent ones that leave in their wake not only the physical damage inflicted but traumatic scars that haunt the victims for a long time.
The Executive Director of the UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa, warns that the drug problem in West Africa, "is growing exponentially and threatening to turn the region into an epicentre of lawlessness and instability. This is the last thing West Africa needs".
If any decent minded person would want to discount Mr Costa’s warning, then the recent execution of Guinea Bissau’s Army Chief, General Batista Tagme na Waie, should send a signal that the country better sits up or face the consequences. That is because it had been proven that the execution of Gen Waie pointed to outside influences, "specifically the Latin American drug cartels who are using Guinea Bissau as a transit point to ship cocaine to Europe".
According to Dr David Zounmenou, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Tshwane, South Africa, "This recent set of killings can be explained [as] the action of the drug traffickers, who would not allow anything to get in the way or to obstruct their links with Europe,"
Economic Consequences
The economic impact of drug abuse on businesses whose employees abuse drugs can be significant. While many drug abusers are unable to attain or hold full-time employment, those who do work put others at risk, particularly when employed in positions where even a minor degree of impairment could be catastrophic; airline pilots, air traffic controllers, train operators, and bus drivers are just a few examples. Economically, businesses often are affected because employees who abuse drugs sometimes steal cash or supplies, equipment, and products that can be sold to get money to buy drugs. Moreover, absenteeism, lost productivity and increased use of medical and insurance benefits by employees who abuse drugs affect a business financially.
It is important to appreciate that other crimes whose effect might not be physical but subtle are the economic and commercial crimes associated with drugs. Counterfeiting, currency trafficking, smuggling, tax evasion, bribery, corruption, money laundering are examples of such drug-related crimes which hit weak national economies of states where drug trafficking thrives. It must be understood that these are corrosive crimes since they undermine the nation, thereby, directly or indirectly generating negative forces that can create political, economic and social tensions. They are crimes that kill slowly but surely.
As K. B. Quantson puts it, "weak economies, with weak weightless currencies, over-liberalised economic policies, in an environment of inordinate, even irrational dependence on foreign consumer items, some of them more exotic than our circumstances dictate, are particularly attractive to drug-dealing because of the ready foreign exchange that they provide".
Certainly, we need not forget the impact on our criminal justice system and the various state institutions that no more function as required because the drug cartels have taken hold of them.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), many assume that the illicit drug trade is a source of employment without any costs for those unable to find productive work in other sectors. This assumption is not entirely accurate. It may be the case that in Bolivia, a 10 per cent increase in coca and cocaine production raises GNP by two per cent and reduces unemployment by six per cent. But inevitably the employment gains generated by the drug trade are more than offset by various side effects.
Two such effects include the inevitable spillover from drug production into consumption, which impacts negatively on productivity, and the sacrifice of resources diverted from legitimate and more sustainable investments. Identifiable costs of drug abuse in consumer countries range from 0.5 to 1.3 per cent of GDP, the largest part of which is used for drug-related crime and law enforcement costs. Taking those costs into account, the argument that the illicit drug industry can act as an engine of growth becomes rather difficult to defend.
According to a report by the UNODC, "drug money is perverting the weak economies in the region. In some cases, the value of the drugs being trafficked is greater than the country’s national income. … These states are not collapsing. They risk becoming shell-states: sovereign in name, but hollowed out from inside by criminals in collusion with corrupt officials in the government and the security services. This not only jeopardises their survival, it poses a serious threat to regional security because of the transnational nature of the crimes.
The increasingly-felt presence of crime syndicates throughout the world is but one reflection of a trend in which criminals are using their earnings to invest in real assets. Criminal entrepreneurship in any economy introduces a parasitic, anti-competitive approach to doing business, as intimidation, violence and extortion rather than free-market competition serve as the primary determinants of resource allocation.
While knowledge of these consequences is still relatively rudimentary, the illicit drug problem has begun to ascend the world's social and economic agenda, thereby considerably raising the prospects that the obstacles which have, until today limited a more detailed understanding, will be overcome.
Article: Albert K. Salia
"Concern about a potential failed state - not Pakistan, not Somalia, but California's neighbor Mexico - is mounting in Washington as an all-out war involving 45,000 Mexican military personnel fails to quell rising drug violence that is spilling from such Mexican cities as Tijuana into the United States. An estimated 6,290 drug-related murders occurred in Mexico last year, six times the standard definition of a civil war, said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a leading scholar on the issue at the Brookings Institution " - San Francisco Chronicle, Thursday, March 12, 2009.
The impact of drugs on our society are numerous and one can hardly find anybody who is a drug-addict and is loved by society. Drug dealing has become a multi-billion dollar business world-wide, permeating and affecting our lives in covert and overt ways. Drug dealing is no longer a violation of the law neither is it just a social problem. It has manifested in increased organised and syndicated criminality, political and economic subversion that threatens vital democratic institutions and in fact, the nation’s security.
The negative consequences of drug abuse affect not only individuals who abuse drugs but also their families and friends, various businesses, and government resources.
Social consequences
The most obvious effects of drug abuse — which are manifested in the individuals who abuse drugs — include illhealth, sickness and ultimately, death.
Children of individuals who abuse drugs often are abused or neglected as a result of the individuals' preoccupation with drugs. Children whose parents and other family members abuse drugs often are physically or emotionally abused and often lack proper immunisations, medical care, dental care, and necessities such as food, water, and shelter.
The fragmentation of many families for example, is due to the wedge represented by substance abuse; many studies have found that family disintegration correlates more strongly with drug abuse than with poverty. Of course, the relationship is two-way; a study on Thailand, for example, has found that increasing use of heroin and psychotropic substances is due in part to the breakdown of traditional family structures and values. In any case, there is a negative link between drugs and the family.
The Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Antonio Maria Costa, notes that, "drugs are also poisoning the region’s (West Africa) youth since the foot soldiers in this growing trade are paid for their services with cocaine. As a result, the vulnerability of West Africa to drugs and crime is deepening even further".
A consultant psychiatrist and a member of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), Dr J. B. Asare, also notes that, “the use of drugs in Ghana is mainly an activity of the youth. About 80 per cent of drug related admissions to the Accra Psychiatric Hospital are between the ages of 16 and 29 years. As more youth become addicted, our investment in our children and the human resource base of our country is being threatened”.
The correlation between drug use and prostitution, while too often portrayed as due to an underlying moral deficiency, is more likely due to a decision to finance the former activity by way of the latter. Indeed, at the heart of the matter is not some inherent criminal deviance which brings together the realms of drugs and crime, but the ability of drugs to act as a lucrative wholesale and retail commodity for which legitimate entrepreneurs will not complete.
The negative impact of drug abuse on health is scientifically well-established and documented. The health costs of a drug addict appear to be some 80 percent higher than those of an average citizen in the same age group. Substances commonly associated with drug-related deaths are cocaine, heroin and other opiates, barbiturates and amphetamines. Substances such as benzodiazepines, hallucinogens and cannabis can have a negative impact on health but are not usually associated with death. The link between injecting drug use (IDU) and the spread of HIV/AIDS is also well recognised; today, at the global level, some 22 per cent of the world's HIV/AIDS population injects drugs. The worldwide HIV-prevalence rate for injecting drug users is between 40-50 per cent.
Crime and criminality
Drug-related crime occurs primarily in the form of trafficking-related criminal activity, including violence between groups in competition for increased market share at the wholesale and retail levels. The current unrest in Mexico, which has claimed millions of lives is a test case.
In his piece; "Drugs, Violence and Economics", David Friedman contends that the link between drugs and violent crime could occur in three ways: violent crime by consumers of drugs, violent crime associated with the production and distribution of drugs, or violent crime directly associated with the attempt to enforce drug prohibition.
For the case of crime by drug consumers, two mechanisms are commonly asserted, with opposite implications. One is drugs as an input to violent crime–people committing crimes under the influence of drugs that they otherwise would not commit.
Violent crime by people involved in the distribution network for drugs might also come about by a variety of mechanisms. One possibility, is that violence occurs because people in that industry have wealth in highly portable forms — drugs and cash — which make them obvious targets for theft or robbery, and since calling the police is not a practical option they must use private violence instead to protect themselves.
A second, suggested by Jeffrey Miron, is that violence occurs as a form of dispute resolution among people who cannot use legal channels because their disputes are occurring in an illegal industry
A third, and rather different possibility is that violent crime represents rent seeking in the competition among suppliers. Suppose, as much anecdotal evidence suggests, that drug distribution often occurs through local monopoly providers. Their profits depend in part on the area they control. So we would expect competition between adjacent firms for territory. One form such competition might take would be violence by agents of one firm against agents, or possibly customers, of another.
Besides, there are crimes such as armed robberies, rape and other violent ones that leave in their wake not only the physical damage inflicted but traumatic scars that haunt the victims for a long time.
The Executive Director of the UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa, warns that the drug problem in West Africa, "is growing exponentially and threatening to turn the region into an epicentre of lawlessness and instability. This is the last thing West Africa needs".
If any decent minded person would want to discount Mr Costa’s warning, then the recent execution of Guinea Bissau’s Army Chief, General Batista Tagme na Waie, should send a signal that the country better sits up or face the consequences. That is because it had been proven that the execution of Gen Waie pointed to outside influences, "specifically the Latin American drug cartels who are using Guinea Bissau as a transit point to ship cocaine to Europe".
According to Dr David Zounmenou, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Tshwane, South Africa, "This recent set of killings can be explained [as] the action of the drug traffickers, who would not allow anything to get in the way or to obstruct their links with Europe,"
Economic Consequences
The economic impact of drug abuse on businesses whose employees abuse drugs can be significant. While many drug abusers are unable to attain or hold full-time employment, those who do work put others at risk, particularly when employed in positions where even a minor degree of impairment could be catastrophic; airline pilots, air traffic controllers, train operators, and bus drivers are just a few examples. Economically, businesses often are affected because employees who abuse drugs sometimes steal cash or supplies, equipment, and products that can be sold to get money to buy drugs. Moreover, absenteeism, lost productivity and increased use of medical and insurance benefits by employees who abuse drugs affect a business financially.
It is important to appreciate that other crimes whose effect might not be physical but subtle are the economic and commercial crimes associated with drugs. Counterfeiting, currency trafficking, smuggling, tax evasion, bribery, corruption, money laundering are examples of such drug-related crimes which hit weak national economies of states where drug trafficking thrives. It must be understood that these are corrosive crimes since they undermine the nation, thereby, directly or indirectly generating negative forces that can create political, economic and social tensions. They are crimes that kill slowly but surely.
As K. B. Quantson puts it, "weak economies, with weak weightless currencies, over-liberalised economic policies, in an environment of inordinate, even irrational dependence on foreign consumer items, some of them more exotic than our circumstances dictate, are particularly attractive to drug-dealing because of the ready foreign exchange that they provide".
Certainly, we need not forget the impact on our criminal justice system and the various state institutions that no more function as required because the drug cartels have taken hold of them.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), many assume that the illicit drug trade is a source of employment without any costs for those unable to find productive work in other sectors. This assumption is not entirely accurate. It may be the case that in Bolivia, a 10 per cent increase in coca and cocaine production raises GNP by two per cent and reduces unemployment by six per cent. But inevitably the employment gains generated by the drug trade are more than offset by various side effects.
Two such effects include the inevitable spillover from drug production into consumption, which impacts negatively on productivity, and the sacrifice of resources diverted from legitimate and more sustainable investments. Identifiable costs of drug abuse in consumer countries range from 0.5 to 1.3 per cent of GDP, the largest part of which is used for drug-related crime and law enforcement costs. Taking those costs into account, the argument that the illicit drug industry can act as an engine of growth becomes rather difficult to defend.
According to a report by the UNODC, "drug money is perverting the weak economies in the region. In some cases, the value of the drugs being trafficked is greater than the country’s national income. … These states are not collapsing. They risk becoming shell-states: sovereign in name, but hollowed out from inside by criminals in collusion with corrupt officials in the government and the security services. This not only jeopardises their survival, it poses a serious threat to regional security because of the transnational nature of the crimes.
The increasingly-felt presence of crime syndicates throughout the world is but one reflection of a trend in which criminals are using their earnings to invest in real assets. Criminal entrepreneurship in any economy introduces a parasitic, anti-competitive approach to doing business, as intimidation, violence and extortion rather than free-market competition serve as the primary determinants of resource allocation.
While knowledge of these consequences is still relatively rudimentary, the illicit drug problem has begun to ascend the world's social and economic agenda, thereby considerably raising the prospects that the obstacles which have, until today limited a more detailed understanding, will be overcome.
Surgical theatre for Children’s Hospital
Page 31: Daily Graphic, March 24, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
ALL is set for the construction of a GH¢350,000 three-storey surgical theatre and intensive care unit for the Princess Louis Marie Childrens’ Hospital in Accra.
When completed, the hospital will be a one-stop hospital for children’s medical needs. Currently such surgical needs are handled by the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
Designs of the building are currently awaiting approval from the City Engineers and the Town & Country Planning Department for the work to commence on the project.
The Chairman of the hospital’s board, Rev Fr Andrew Campbell, announced this when Council 71 and Court 63 of the Knights and Ladies of Marshall, Dansoman, presented various items worth GH¢2,500 and a cheque for GH¢200 to the hospital.
Rev Fr Campbell said although the hospital was set up to take care of malnourished children, it had grown to provide medical services such as Ear Nose and Throat (ENT), and dental care.
He, therefore, appealed to institutions and philanthropists for financial support to enable the hospital to provide excellent services to its clients.
He said the hospital was adjudged the best in the Greater Accra Region last year, and indicated that its objective was to be the best in the country.
The Grand Knight of Council 71, Mr Mark Anthony Taylor, said the Marshallan fraternity, a friendly Catholic society, sought to uplift and ameliorate the living conditions of the needy in society.
“We are faithful friends of the poor, distressed and the needy in society. For us, the essence of charity is love and the practical application of love is charity,” he said.
Mr Taylor said it was in that spirit that the Dansoman branch of the Marshallan fraternity decided to use the Lenten period prior to Easter to make a difference in the lives of sick children, and recalled that the society in February this year presented various items to the maternity ward of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
Story: Albert K. Salia
ALL is set for the construction of a GH¢350,000 three-storey surgical theatre and intensive care unit for the Princess Louis Marie Childrens’ Hospital in Accra.
When completed, the hospital will be a one-stop hospital for children’s medical needs. Currently such surgical needs are handled by the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
Designs of the building are currently awaiting approval from the City Engineers and the Town & Country Planning Department for the work to commence on the project.
The Chairman of the hospital’s board, Rev Fr Andrew Campbell, announced this when Council 71 and Court 63 of the Knights and Ladies of Marshall, Dansoman, presented various items worth GH¢2,500 and a cheque for GH¢200 to the hospital.
Rev Fr Campbell said although the hospital was set up to take care of malnourished children, it had grown to provide medical services such as Ear Nose and Throat (ENT), and dental care.
He, therefore, appealed to institutions and philanthropists for financial support to enable the hospital to provide excellent services to its clients.
He said the hospital was adjudged the best in the Greater Accra Region last year, and indicated that its objective was to be the best in the country.
The Grand Knight of Council 71, Mr Mark Anthony Taylor, said the Marshallan fraternity, a friendly Catholic society, sought to uplift and ameliorate the living conditions of the needy in society.
“We are faithful friends of the poor, distressed and the needy in society. For us, the essence of charity is love and the practical application of love is charity,” he said.
Mr Taylor said it was in that spirit that the Dansoman branch of the Marshallan fraternity decided to use the Lenten period prior to Easter to make a difference in the lives of sick children, and recalled that the society in February this year presented various items to the maternity ward of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
'3 Children died of suffocation'
Front Page: Daily Graphic, March 23, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
POST-Mortem results on the three children who were found dead in a KIA Sportage vehicle, with registration number GR 7755 R, at Anyaa, a suburb of Accra, on February 4, 2009 indicate that the kids died from asphyxia (suffocation).
Richard Bonna, Jackson Nti and Kwaw Frimpong were found dead in the vehicle, which was parked at an abandoned fitting workshop.
The post-mortem was conducted by Dr Marcia Maria Cruz of the Police Hospital on February 9, 2009.
The verbal result of the post-mortem on the three kids who also died under similar circumstances at Alogboshie, near Achimota, on February 22, 2009 also showed that they died from causes consistent with heat stroke.
The pathologist, Dr L. Adusei of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, is, however, awaiting toxicology examination results from the Ghana Standards Board before writing a full report on the cause of the death of Gabriel Kwofie, his cousin, Edem Asimenu, and their friend, Isaac Annoh, who were found dead in an abandoned car, with registration number GR 3656 R, parked in the house of one of their neighbours.
The Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service, DSP Kwesi Ofori, told the Daily Graphic that the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) was doing everything possible to conclude its investigations.
He discounted rumours that the death of children started this year.
According to him, a similar incident happened in Kumasi on March 5, 2008 in which two kids, Fatao Issaka and Kausa Alhassan, died in a taxi, with registration number GT 5488 S.
He said although the bodies of those two children were removed from the taxi and dumped 20 metres away from the taxi, investigations later revealed that the children had died in the car, as finger impressions of the children matched what were in the car.
“A careful examination of the cab revealed some fresh finger impressions on the driver’s door and on both sides of the front glasses. A further careful examination of the impressions indicated to us (police) that they were those of children and, probably, of the two kids,” he said.
DSP Ofori said investigations into such matters took time and, therefore, appealed for public co-operation and support.
Story: Albert K. Salia
POST-Mortem results on the three children who were found dead in a KIA Sportage vehicle, with registration number GR 7755 R, at Anyaa, a suburb of Accra, on February 4, 2009 indicate that the kids died from asphyxia (suffocation).
Richard Bonna, Jackson Nti and Kwaw Frimpong were found dead in the vehicle, which was parked at an abandoned fitting workshop.
The post-mortem was conducted by Dr Marcia Maria Cruz of the Police Hospital on February 9, 2009.
The verbal result of the post-mortem on the three kids who also died under similar circumstances at Alogboshie, near Achimota, on February 22, 2009 also showed that they died from causes consistent with heat stroke.
The pathologist, Dr L. Adusei of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, is, however, awaiting toxicology examination results from the Ghana Standards Board before writing a full report on the cause of the death of Gabriel Kwofie, his cousin, Edem Asimenu, and their friend, Isaac Annoh, who were found dead in an abandoned car, with registration number GR 3656 R, parked in the house of one of their neighbours.
The Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service, DSP Kwesi Ofori, told the Daily Graphic that the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) was doing everything possible to conclude its investigations.
He discounted rumours that the death of children started this year.
According to him, a similar incident happened in Kumasi on March 5, 2008 in which two kids, Fatao Issaka and Kausa Alhassan, died in a taxi, with registration number GT 5488 S.
He said although the bodies of those two children were removed from the taxi and dumped 20 metres away from the taxi, investigations later revealed that the children had died in the car, as finger impressions of the children matched what were in the car.
“A careful examination of the cab revealed some fresh finger impressions on the driver’s door and on both sides of the front glasses. A further careful examination of the impressions indicated to us (police) that they were those of children and, probably, of the two kids,” he said.
DSP Ofori said investigations into such matters took time and, therefore, appealed for public co-operation and support.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Drug trafficking, threat to Ghana’s stability
Page 14: Daily Graphic, March 20, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
A MEMBER of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), Dr J. B. Asare, says drug trafficking poses a serious threat to Ghana’s stability, warning of contract killings should the country not take drug control seriously.
“Bribery and corruption of law enforcement agencies, extending to the judiciary, will undermine the rule of law and make the country ungovernable, leading to political instability,” he said.
Dr Asare, who is also a consultant psychiatrist, was speaking on the topic, “Ghana: From trafficking to consumption”, at the Government of Ghana–United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC)-organised conference on “Ghana against drugs and crimes” in Accra.
The conference was to discuss and raise awareness of illicit drug trafficking as a threat to Ghana’s national security.
Dr Asare further warned that gang warfare and other conflicts, money laundering, increase in organised crimes and terrorism were expected to escalate “if we do not put our heads together to stop or reduce this menace”.
He expressed regret that the political will for drug control activities in the country had not manifested itself in the provision of adequate financial investment for drug control activities, while human resource development for demand reduction activities had received minimal attention.
He added his voice to calls for the Narcotics Control Board to be made autonomous, while the law establishing it was revised to take account of the various UN conventions.
“The board should be backed by law to be able to generate money from fines and proceeds from confiscated assets,” he said.
Dr Asare also called on the government not to compromise the character of the board, which should be composed based on institutional representation, while all workers in the drug control field were screened to attract and retain honest, disciplined and dedicated people who should be adequately rewarded.
He said although the extent of drug abuse in the country was not known, the use of drugs in Ghana was mainly associated with the youth.
For his part, the Head of the Conflict Prevention, Management & Resolution Department of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Dr Kwesi Aning, said the activities of drug dealers were eroding the reputation of Ghana as a functional state.
“Perceived to have been extensively penetrated by drug money, law enforcement officers perceive many Ghanaian politicians as being interested in the drug trade, while the booming real estate business is allegedly financed by some of these proceeds. Drug refining and re-sale is also taking place in Ghana with the importation of precursor chemicals from South Africa,” he said.
He noted that efforts to fight the drug menace were being impeded because the security agencies did not have the skill and resources to investigate those behind the importation and re-export of the drugs and their level of influence on the consuming market.
According to him, the judiciary had also in no small way thwarted the zeal and ability of the security agencies to combat drug trafficking.
“It is increasingly becoming clear that particular judges give particular judgements in drug cases that are beginning to show a pattern. While previously this was explained as due to the technicalities of the law, it is now clear that judgements by some members of the judiciary are more than suspicious…,” he said.
Dr Aning stressed the need for the government to address the problem of youth unemployment, saying that because of the “massive youth unemployment rate, a vast reserve of potentially recruitable youth is readily available”.
Story: Albert K. Salia
A MEMBER of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), Dr J. B. Asare, says drug trafficking poses a serious threat to Ghana’s stability, warning of contract killings should the country not take drug control seriously.
“Bribery and corruption of law enforcement agencies, extending to the judiciary, will undermine the rule of law and make the country ungovernable, leading to political instability,” he said.
Dr Asare, who is also a consultant psychiatrist, was speaking on the topic, “Ghana: From trafficking to consumption”, at the Government of Ghana–United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC)-organised conference on “Ghana against drugs and crimes” in Accra.
The conference was to discuss and raise awareness of illicit drug trafficking as a threat to Ghana’s national security.
Dr Asare further warned that gang warfare and other conflicts, money laundering, increase in organised crimes and terrorism were expected to escalate “if we do not put our heads together to stop or reduce this menace”.
He expressed regret that the political will for drug control activities in the country had not manifested itself in the provision of adequate financial investment for drug control activities, while human resource development for demand reduction activities had received minimal attention.
He added his voice to calls for the Narcotics Control Board to be made autonomous, while the law establishing it was revised to take account of the various UN conventions.
“The board should be backed by law to be able to generate money from fines and proceeds from confiscated assets,” he said.
Dr Asare also called on the government not to compromise the character of the board, which should be composed based on institutional representation, while all workers in the drug control field were screened to attract and retain honest, disciplined and dedicated people who should be adequately rewarded.
He said although the extent of drug abuse in the country was not known, the use of drugs in Ghana was mainly associated with the youth.
For his part, the Head of the Conflict Prevention, Management & Resolution Department of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Dr Kwesi Aning, said the activities of drug dealers were eroding the reputation of Ghana as a functional state.
“Perceived to have been extensively penetrated by drug money, law enforcement officers perceive many Ghanaian politicians as being interested in the drug trade, while the booming real estate business is allegedly financed by some of these proceeds. Drug refining and re-sale is also taking place in Ghana with the importation of precursor chemicals from South Africa,” he said.
He noted that efforts to fight the drug menace were being impeded because the security agencies did not have the skill and resources to investigate those behind the importation and re-export of the drugs and their level of influence on the consuming market.
According to him, the judiciary had also in no small way thwarted the zeal and ability of the security agencies to combat drug trafficking.
“It is increasingly becoming clear that particular judges give particular judgements in drug cases that are beginning to show a pattern. While previously this was explained as due to the technicalities of the law, it is now clear that judgements by some members of the judiciary are more than suspicious…,” he said.
Dr Aning stressed the need for the government to address the problem of youth unemployment, saying that because of the “massive youth unemployment rate, a vast reserve of potentially recruitable youth is readily available”.
'Let's fight drug menace'
Page 45: Daily Graphic, March 19, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, has called on Ghanaians to rally behind the government to fight the drug menace in the country.
He said Ghanaians must not allow local drug barons and their international collaborators to reduce the country to a state of lawlessness and insecurity.
The Vice-President, who was addressing a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Government of Ghana-organised conference on drugs, said the government had directed all the security agencies to go all out to arrest, prosecute and confiscate the properties of drug traffickers to serve as a disincentive for people contemplating entering the trade.
At the conference, which was on the theme, “Ghana against drug and crime”, the acting Inspector-General of Police, Mrs Elizabeth Mills-Robertson, unveiled a confidential crime fighters hotline number, 021-773695, which would be manned 24 hours a week for the public to call and provide information on drug dealers, armed robbers, car thieves and wanted persons.
Mr Mahama said the drug menace had not only eaten deep into the moral fibre of the society but also triggered off organised crime as an occupational profession for some youth.
He urged Ghanaians to rekindle national ethical values of morality, honesty and hard work and question the source of wealth of persons who became rich overnight.
He said the drug menace had lowered the esteem of Ghana in the international community and continued to paint an ugly picture of the country in the eyes of the comity of nations.
He, therefore, saw the conference as a follow-up to President Mills’s pledge to deal with the menace and ensure a drug- free society.
The Vice-President said although Ghana was a signatory to many UN conventions and protocols on drugs, combating the menace had become a jig-saw puzzle which seemed to defy conventional approaches to law enforcement.
He said the government had recognised the inadequacy of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) Law, PNDC Law 236 of 1990, and would amend it and strengthen NACOB to serve as a lead agency to co-ordinate drug law enforcement and prevention activities of all state security agencies.
Mr Mahama said the government would also source funding for the procurement of appropriate equipment and gadgets to facilitate the detection of concealed narcotic drugs at the entry and exit points.
He said the government had also decided to descend heavily on all security personnel who compromise their positions in the fight against drugs.
The Interior Minister, Mr Cletus Avoka, said Ghana had become a preferred drug destination because of its stability, poor coastline security, direct flights from the Kotoka International Airport, as well as bribery and corruption among law enforcement officers.
He expressed the hope that the conference would result in finding an integrated and pragmatic solution to the multi-faceted drug problem.
Speaking on the “Mexican Experience”, a researcher at the Centre for Research and Anthropology in Mexico City, Mr Carlos Antonio Perez, said Mexico was not a coca producing country but had reached the present state of chaos because officialdom and Mexicans ignored the problem.
He said both Mexicans and officialdom described Mexico only as a transit country. He showed videos of clashes among different cartels and attacks on police stations to free captured drug dealers.
The Executive Director of NACOB, ACP Robert Ayalingo, said deconfiscation of the properties of convicted drug dealers and the failure of the Attorney-General’s Department to appeal against certain judgements lowered the morale of personnel of the board.
He called for the establishment of a National Rehabilitation and Addiction Monitoring Centre, away from the psychiatric hospitals, to enable the fight against the drug menace to be appropriately measured.
The British High Commissioner to Ghana, Dr Nick Westcott, pledged the support of the international community to assist Ghana to deal with the menace.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, has called on Ghanaians to rally behind the government to fight the drug menace in the country.
He said Ghanaians must not allow local drug barons and their international collaborators to reduce the country to a state of lawlessness and insecurity.
The Vice-President, who was addressing a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Government of Ghana-organised conference on drugs, said the government had directed all the security agencies to go all out to arrest, prosecute and confiscate the properties of drug traffickers to serve as a disincentive for people contemplating entering the trade.
At the conference, which was on the theme, “Ghana against drug and crime”, the acting Inspector-General of Police, Mrs Elizabeth Mills-Robertson, unveiled a confidential crime fighters hotline number, 021-773695, which would be manned 24 hours a week for the public to call and provide information on drug dealers, armed robbers, car thieves and wanted persons.
Mr Mahama said the drug menace had not only eaten deep into the moral fibre of the society but also triggered off organised crime as an occupational profession for some youth.
He urged Ghanaians to rekindle national ethical values of morality, honesty and hard work and question the source of wealth of persons who became rich overnight.
He said the drug menace had lowered the esteem of Ghana in the international community and continued to paint an ugly picture of the country in the eyes of the comity of nations.
He, therefore, saw the conference as a follow-up to President Mills’s pledge to deal with the menace and ensure a drug- free society.
The Vice-President said although Ghana was a signatory to many UN conventions and protocols on drugs, combating the menace had become a jig-saw puzzle which seemed to defy conventional approaches to law enforcement.
He said the government had recognised the inadequacy of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) Law, PNDC Law 236 of 1990, and would amend it and strengthen NACOB to serve as a lead agency to co-ordinate drug law enforcement and prevention activities of all state security agencies.
Mr Mahama said the government would also source funding for the procurement of appropriate equipment and gadgets to facilitate the detection of concealed narcotic drugs at the entry and exit points.
He said the government had also decided to descend heavily on all security personnel who compromise their positions in the fight against drugs.
The Interior Minister, Mr Cletus Avoka, said Ghana had become a preferred drug destination because of its stability, poor coastline security, direct flights from the Kotoka International Airport, as well as bribery and corruption among law enforcement officers.
He expressed the hope that the conference would result in finding an integrated and pragmatic solution to the multi-faceted drug problem.
Speaking on the “Mexican Experience”, a researcher at the Centre for Research and Anthropology in Mexico City, Mr Carlos Antonio Perez, said Mexico was not a coca producing country but had reached the present state of chaos because officialdom and Mexicans ignored the problem.
He said both Mexicans and officialdom described Mexico only as a transit country. He showed videos of clashes among different cartels and attacks on police stations to free captured drug dealers.
The Executive Director of NACOB, ACP Robert Ayalingo, said deconfiscation of the properties of convicted drug dealers and the failure of the Attorney-General’s Department to appeal against certain judgements lowered the morale of personnel of the board.
He called for the establishment of a National Rehabilitation and Addiction Monitoring Centre, away from the psychiatric hospitals, to enable the fight against the drug menace to be appropriately measured.
The British High Commissioner to Ghana, Dr Nick Westcott, pledged the support of the international community to assist Ghana to deal with the menace.
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