Sunday, November 30, 2008

PROVIDE MORE SHELVES FOR HOHOE LIBRAY (PAGE 23)

THE Hohoe Municipal Library has made an appeal to the Hohoe Municipal Assembly and other benevolent organisations to provide more shelves for it’s books.
According to the librarian, Mr Stephen Hekli, most of the library books were being kept on the floor due to lack of shelves to store them.
Making the appeal through the Daily Graphic at Hohoe, he noted that for lack of space, some of the library’s clients had stopped patronising the facility.
Mr Hekli mentioned shortage of staff as another problem facing the library; a situation that had prevented the facility from running two shifts, which should have been the case.
He was, however, grateful to the assembly for providing office accommodation for the library and appealed for its extension to cater for more readers.

Monday, November 24, 2008

TEACHERS ASSURED OF PAYMENT OF SALARIES (PAGE 11)

THE Hohoe Municipal Director of Education, Mrs Juliet Beauty Kumah, has assured the 2007 batch of the Diploma in Basic Education teachers that their salaries and arrears will be paid in full by the end of November this year.
According to the director, all the necessary work had been completed and at the end of this month they would return home with smiles.
A number of teachers in the Hohoe Municipality and other parts of the country who completed their training in 2007 have expressed concern about the failure of the Ghana Educations Service to put them on the correct salary scale.
According to them, despite several appeals to the GES, nothing had been done to that effect.
They said apart from not being put on the right salary scale, they were yet to be given arrears due them.
In an interview in relation to a four-point resolution sent to her and other stakeholders in education by the 2007 batch of teachers in the Hohoe municipality, she explained that the delay was due to the breakdown of machinery between August and October this year.
According to the resolution, the teachers asked that their arrears should be paid in full, and that they should be placed on the correct salary scale by November 15.
They further asked the Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) to conduct investigations into the undue delay to prevent a recurrence.
The resolution warned that should their conditions not be met by November 15 they would mount persistent pressure to back their demand.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

PEOPLE AT PONKOR APPEAL FOR ELECTRICITY (PAGE 25)

THE people of Ponkor in the Jaman North District in the Brong Ahafo Region have appealed to the government to extend electricity to the community to facilitate the establishment of small-scale businesses in the area.
A citizen of the town resident in Tema, Mr Stephen Yeboah, made the appeal through the Daily Graphic at Ponkor on Wednesday.
He stated that since the area was noted for the cultivation of cashew, yam, cassava and maize, the extension of electricity would encourage more youth to venture into large-scale agriculture and process their produce into secondary commodities.
Addressing a meeting with farmers and the youth at Ponkor, Mr Yeboah said it was unfortunate that the youth in the area were drifting to cities in search of non-existent jobs.
He said with the provision of the necessary social amenities, such as electricity, the youth would stay in the area and make enough money to cater for their needs.
Mr Yeboah, however, called on parents in the area to show greater interest in the education of their children to enable them to be useful citizens in future.
He noted that with the introduction of the Capitation Grant and other interventions, parents had no excuse for refusing to send their children to school.
Touching on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Mr Yeboah appealed to the people to register to be part of the scheme in order to enjoy its benefits.
On the forthcoming general election, he appealed to leaders and supporters of the various political parties to work towards ensuring peace before, during and after the polls.

Friday, November 21, 2008

GLADYS DOE ADJUDGED BEST FARMER IN KPANDO DISTRICT (PAGE 20)

A 51-YEAR-OLD farmer of Vakpo in the Kpando District of the Volta Region, Madam Gladys Doe, was adjudged the best farmer in the district for the year 2008.
That was not the first time Madam Doe had won a prize in agriculture.
Madam Doe, who said she went into farming 10 years ago after 18 years sojourn in Nigeria, said she won the first prizes in cassava and mango production in 2005 and 2007 respectively.
In an interview after receiving her prize, Madam Doe said she learnt the profession from her late father, Mr Gabriel Doe.
Madam Doe took home a certificate, a table top refrigerator, a bicycle, a knapsack sprayer, a number of bars of Key soap, machetes and a pair of wellington boots.
In all, 25 farmers, including a disabled person, Mr Afatsao Bobodza of Kpando Bame, were awarded.
The Vakpo Senior High School (SHS) and Gbefi Hoeme Anobi District Assembly Junior High School also received prizes.
At the ceremony, the Kpando District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Pius Kwami Adanuti, said the country could overcome the effects of globalisation, only if the people shifted their preference for foreign goods to made-in-Ghana goods.
He said in rice cultivation, for instance, Ghana had the capacity to produce her requirements but the people had developed an insatiable taste for rice from the Far East.
Mr Adanuti called on farmers to add value to their produce to meet international market standards.
For her part, the Kpando District Director of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Madam Cecilia Gboloo, noted that agricultural production was improving in the district.
On behalf of the farmers, she commended the President, Mr John Agyekum Kufour, for responding to the cry of the farmers by subsidising by half the prices of fertilisers.
The Krontihene of Anfoega Traditional Area, Togbe Ganahe Akompi V, appealed to the Kpando District Assembly to reconstruct the collapsed local market.
He said it was ironical to be awarding farmers when they did not have any place to market their produce.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

CHURCH RAISES GH¢60,000 TO FUND GUEST HOUSE (PAGE 21)

THE Klefe Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana last Sunday realised more than GH¢60,000 at a fund-raising ceremony to climax their centenary celebrations held at Klefe Kpodzi in the Ho Municipality.
The money would be used for the completion of the church’s centenary guest house.
Preaching the sermon on the theme: “I Shall Not Die but Live and Proclaim the Work of the Lord,” the Moderator of the EP Church, Ghana, Rt. Rev. Dr Livingstone Komla Buama, a citizen of the town, said the church was established at Klefe about 100 years ago.
He said with hard work and dedication over the years, Christianity and education were deeply rooted in the area and the result was the production of many prominent people including bankers, doctors, lawyers, military and police officers.
Rt. Rev. Buama stressed the need for the youth to worship God in sincerity to protect them against poverty, drugs and alcohol abuse, irresponsible parenthood and sexual promiscuity.
For his part, the former moderator of the church, Very Rev. J.Y. Ledo, called on Christians to have confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ and also love one another and in truth.
“It is by so doing that our proclamation of the works of the Lord will rise up to him”, he said.
Earlier in a welcoming address, the Fiaga of Klefe Traditional Area, Togbe Afele Dzaga X, was happy about the peaceful co-existence of the 10 Christian churches in the town.
He noted that the celebration should mark a new vision for strengthening their Christian values and morals.
“We should do away with outmoded customs, reduce ignorance and poverty and make Klefe a place of peace and development and progress”, Togbe Dzaga said.
He called for the establishment of an education endowment fund to support brilliant, needy children in the area.

EVANGELICAL PRESBY SCHOOL ROAD TO BE REBUILT (PAGE 11)

THE Minister of Transportation, Dr Richard Anane, has assured students and staff of the Evangelical Presbyterian Senior High School (HEPSS) that the two-kilometre access road leading to the school will soon be rehabilitated.
He said the road project was seriously receiving attention and funds will be released for works to begin.
Dr Anane said this in a speech read on his behalf at the 46th Speech and Prize-giving Day ceremony of the school at Hohoe in the Volta Region.
Speaking on the theme “The New Reform— Challenges and Prospects”, he said the educational reform being pursued by the government required more infrastructural facilities to enhance teaching and learning in schools.
According to the minister, “the government faces the daunting task of providing infrastructure such as staff accommodation, classrooms, libraries, science blocks, workshops, buses and other logistics with the scarce resources at its disposal”.
On Information Communication Technology (ICT), he said the government, in conjunction with the Ghana Education Service (GES), had assisted a number of schools to run ICT courses, which will be replicated in other senior high schools throughout the country.
He said the performance of teachers had also been improved to meet the challenges of the new reform through such programmes as upgrading teacher training colleges to diploma-awarding institutions, distance education and sandwich programmes.
On the forthcoming election, he emphasised that as one people with a common destiny, all of us should create the enabling peaceful atmosphere and said, those who had not yet attained the voting age especially students, should not attempt to vote since that would seriously affect their education.
The Volta Regional Director of Education, Reverend Samuel Amankwa, advised parents, as partners in education, to establish cordial relationships with teachers, and added, “Make the education of your ward your central focus and seek such opportunities for them, not only in public institutions but also in the private ones”.
The headmaster of the school, Mr John Osei-Nyansa, said the school, which was established in 1961 and now had a student population of over 800, with 46 teachers, offered General Arts, General Science, Business and Vocational programmes.
The headmaster said the school was supposed to have 21 classrooms for the old programme, but only 10 could be called classrooms.
He said apart from all these problems, the teachers continued to put in their best and their results continued to be good.
In 2006, for instance, he said the school recorded 100 per cent passes with 45 per cent moving on to tertiary institutions, while they scored 98 per cent in 2007 and 98 per cent in 2008.
The headmaster noted that though efforts were being made to provide more infrastructure in the school, that would not solve the immediate challenges facing it, in spite of it being a model school.
Their challenges, he said, were mostly accommodation for staff, boys and girls dormitories and classrooms for the ever increasing student population.
He also touched on the access road to the school, which, he said, was in a very deplorable state.
In all, 26 students, teaching and non-teaching staff members received various prizes for their meritorious achievements in their respective areas.
Miss Patience Hottor, 19, a second-year General Arts student, who received the overall best student award, took home a shield, certificate, books and GH¢ 20.00.

KPANDO ACCIDENT CLAIMS SIX LIVES (BACK PAGE)

Six people died, three on the spot and three on the way to the Margaret Marquart Catholic Hospital, Kpando, in a fatal accident on the Kpando–Tokor road yesterday.
The 38-seater Mercedes Benz 205 D bus, with registration number AS 94 D, which was involved in the accident, was conveying bags of salt and 19 passengers, mostly traders from Ningo in the Greater Accra Region, to the Tokor Market when it plunged into a valley at about 5.50 a.m.
The dead include the driver of the Benz bus, his mate and four others who are yet to be identified. Their bodies have been deposited at the mortuary of the Margaret Marquart Catholic Hospital.
The remaining 13 passengers, mostly women, are on admission at the same hospital.
They are Sarah Tetteh, 50; Joyce Kwami, 20; Gifty Ntiamoah, 40; Tei Daniel, 26; Kofi Awatey, 37, and Ayiku Tetteh, 36.
The rest are Okutu Boitey, 46; Sarah Adotum, 24; Joyce Tetteh, 46; Amaki Dzagonu, 62; Baby Siaw, 30, and Emmanuel Akwettey, 21.
According to the medical superintendent of the hospital, the victims were all in stable condition.
According to the Kpando District Commander of Police, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Julius Ellis Agbavade, the driver was just about two kilometres away from Tokor when the accident occurred.
He attributed it to tiredness on the part of the driver because he went off the road and drove some 100 metres. It was in an attempt to get back on the road that the vehicle skidded and fell into a deep valley.
The Kpando District Chief Executive, Mr Pius Adanuti, who visited the victims at the hospital, sent his condolences to the bereaved families and wished those in the hospital a speedy recovery.
He reiterated his appeal to the Ghana Highway Authority to rehabilitate the Kpando-Ve Golokuati road which had a lot of potholes on it.
On the Kpando-Tokor road, he wondered when the GHA would heed to his call to put road markings and railings on the meandering road to prevent accidents.
He expressed his gratitude to taxi drivers at Kpando, officers of the Ghana National Fire Service and the police at Kpando for their prompt response to the accident.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

COURT ISSUES BENCH WARRANT FOR ARREST OF BUSINESSWOMAN (PAGE 39)

THE Jasikan Circuit Court in the Volta Region has issued a bench warrant for the arrest of a 23-year old Jasiskan-based business woman, Sylvia Ama Afful, for allegedly defrauding the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) of GH¢1,230.
The court has adjourned the case sine die until Sylvia, who has jumped bail, is re-arrested.
Sylvia is believed to be hiding in Accra or Tema.
Presenting the facts of the case before the court presided over by Mr Samuel Kofi Solomon, the prosecutor, Inspector Seth Twum Mensah, said on December 31, 2007, Sylvia, a customer of the Jasikan branch of the GCB, went to the bank to transact business.
He said Sylvia, who had credit balance of GH¢1,247.22 at the bank, requested the staff to transfer the money to Tema for some business transactions.
According to the prosecutor, the bank suffered some power fluctuations so the transfer process was made twice as the first transaction was thought to have been unsuccessful.
Inspector Twum Mensah said when the network was fully restored, the bank detected that the suspect’s account had been credited twice.
According to the prosecutor, the bank quickly notified Sylvia by telephone but she ignored the notification and rather went ahead to withdraw all the money in her account.
Inspector Twum Mensah said Sylvia gave the assurance that she would refund the excess amount to the bank but rather closed the account and stopped going to Jasikan.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

HOHOE ELECTION TASK FORCE INAUGURATED (PAGE 16)

THE 11-member Hohoe Municipal Election Task Force Committee has been inaugurated in Hohoe and tasked to ensure smooth and peaceful general election on December 7.
The committees members are drawn from the Police, Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), Fire Service, Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), Immigration Service and the Electoral Commission (EC).
In his inaugural address, the Sector Commander of CEPS, Mr Fredua Boakye Agyeman, urged all security service personnel who would be deployed on election day to be extra cautious, maintain discipline and be alert at all times. Above all, they need to remain non-partisan before, during and after the elections.
“To the commanders who would be in charge of the various districts: We expect you to lead by example. You must ensure that all your men are well briefed on their duties, and do not hesitate to contact your superiors when confronted with any problem”, he cautioned.
Mr Agyeman urged the security service to display a high sense of fairness in order to uphold the confidence reposed in them by the public.
“I look forward to maximum co-operation from members of the security service and a cordial relationship with the general public. This is the only country we have, and we must work diligently to protect it”, he advised.

COCOBOD VOWS TO ELIMINATE CHILD LABOUR (BACK PAGE)

GHANA COCOBOD says it is determined to eliminate the worst forms of child labour in the cocoa sector throughout the country.
Addressing a farmers rally at Likpe Bala in the Hohoe Municipality last Tuesday, a Senior Research Officer of COCOBOD, Mr Paul Ntim, said in that effort, COCOBOD was collaborating with International Cocoa Initiatives (ICI) to build the capacity of some media personnel and COCOBOD field staff to deal with issues of child labour.
He announced that over 300 field staff and Licensed Buying Companies (LBCs) have so far been trained in that regard.
He added that cocobod had also started a rigorous radio educational programme on child labour with 13 selected FM stations to create awareness and sensitise communities to ensuring that children were not exploited and abused in the production of cocoa.
Examples of cases of child labour, he cited, included taking children under 18 years out of school to work on cocoa farms, and heaping heavy loads on the heads of the children.
He said with such initiatives, COCOBOD had seen effective results, especially through the use of the local languages on the 13 selected radio stations.
This, he said, was part of the national programme for the elimination of worst forms of child labour by 2011, adding that the programme was crucial to the development and growth of the country.
On the quality of cocoa, he urged farmers to ferment their cocoa for six days, dry them well so that the standard set by Ghana on the world market would be sustained.

BARCLAYS BANK FETES PUPILS (PAGE 22)

THE Hohoe branch of Barclays Bank, Ghana has feted 400 pupils selected from three junior high schools (JHS) as part of its “Make a Difference Day Celebration” held at Hohoe.
The beneficiary schools were the Evangelical Presbyterian, Experimental and New Town Municipal Assembly JHS.
As part of the celebration, Barclays Bank officials taught the students lessons in Mathematics, English and Science after which each of them took home exercise books and pens.
In addition, a counselling exercise was held for them on several issues, including respect for their parents and teachers, drug abuse and the need to learn hard in school.
Food and drinks were served to the participants.
The Co-ordinator for the programme, Mr Sterlington Horsoo of the Hohoe branch of Barclays Bank, said such programmes were organised annually to enable the staff to reach out to the people in the community as part of its social responsibility.
He said last year, the bank held the programme at the Volta School for the Deaf at Hohoe.
In a chat, the Headmaster of E.P. JHS, Mr Sylva-Eric Woname, said they were very excited about the programme since it would motivate the students to aim high.

Monday, November 3, 2008

FARMERS GET MOSQUITO NETS (BACK PAGE)

THE Produce Buying Company (PBC) has distributed 5,121 mosquito nets to farmers in various cocoa-growing centres in the Volta Region at a ceremony at Bodada in the Jasikan District.
Mr Prosper Segbla, Volta Regional Manager of the PBC, who made the presentation, said the government was doing its best to boost cocoa production to enable the country to hit the one million tonne target in the next two years.
He said due to smuggling activities, only 1,000 tonnes of cocoa beans were bought in the region in spite of the good harvest brought about by the mass spraying exercise and provision of other inputs aimed at boosting production.
This was out of the 700,000 tonnes recorded nationwide last year.
He lamented that due to smuggling in the region, incentives due to farmers were denied them, adding that last year for instance, the region had only six Ghana Cocoa Board scholarship awards as compared to Sankore, a cocoa-growing community in the Brong Ahafo, which had 300.
On boreholes, he said the region had only five, adding that the government was prepared to respond to the needs of the people if they identified themselves with it.
Mr Segbla also announced that funds had been released for the payment of bonus this year aimed at improving cocoa production in the country.