The family of the late Mahama petitioned Chief Justice Georgina Wood over the conduct of the judge, Lawrence L. Mensah, claiming he has been overburdening prosecutors with demands such as ensuring that their witnesses in the matter are brought in time for a speedy trial.
They also questioned the judge’s decision to remand Afoko in police cell instead of prison custody. The petition caused the court to temporarily suspend the trial of the case which is to be heard by a seven-man jury constituted by the court.
In court Friday, the judge announced the Chief Justice’s response to the petition, saying the CJ has asked him [the judge] to proceed to hear the case on grounds that the content of the petition did not warrant change of trial judge, TV3’s Godfred Tanam reported.
Afoko Afoko and one other, Asabke Alangdi, who is on the run, have been charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit crime and murder. A third accomplice, Musa Issa, was granted bail after the Attorney-General had advised it does not have enough evidence to charge him.
Battle over evidence
Meanwhile, the court has ordered the prosecution to furnish the defence team with pictures of the crime scene and all statement of the witnesses the prosecution intends calling to give evidence in the case.
It followed an application filed by the defence counsel led by Mr Ekow Ampah-Korsah. Chief State Attorney, Mathew Amponsah opposed the application arguing that it was not mandatory under the law for the prosecution to provide such documents to the defence.
He told the court giving such documents to the defence will mean surrendering the prosecution’s entire case docket to the defence.
But the court disagreed with the prosecution and ordered that the documents be given to the defence as it was key in defending the case against the accused person.
Police cell full
Prosecutors told the court Friday that the Police cell where Afoko is being held is full, hence prayed the court to remand him to prison custody, Tanam reported.
The request of the prosecution came as a surprise to Afoko as he shook his head while he listened to the submission of the prosecutors from the witness box, Tanam added.
Counsel Afoko challenged the request but the judge overruled that.
The case has been adjourned to May 21 , when hearing is expected to start in the case.
Facts of the case
It is the prosecution’s case that on May 14, 2015, Gregory’s brother, Mr Paul Afoko, and Mr Kwabena Agyepong, arrived in Bolgatanga for a meeting.
The late Mahama was said to have organised thugs to violently attack them for campaigning against Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. The court head thugs scuttled the planned meeting by the two at the Asumsolon Guest House.
According to the prosecution, Gregory Afoko who was upset by the issue confronted Mahama but was chased out by thugs.
Gregory and his accomplice were said to have formed another youth group to protect persons perceived to be against Nana Akufo-Addo.
The prosecution said the accused persons held a series of meetings with the youth and on May 20, 2015, they laid ambush at Mahama’s residence with a substance suspected to be acid.
“The deceased returned home around 11:10 p.m. in his pickup vehicle, with registration number NR 761 – 14, and immediately he parked the vehicle in front of his house, the suspects went close and signalled him to roll down the glass.
“The deceased identified the suspects to be party members and rolled down the glass to talk to them. Suddenly, the suspects poured the substance suspected to be acid on his head, face and other parts of his body and fled on a motorbike.
“The deceased started screaming for help and his wife, Hajia Zenabu Adams, came to the aid of the deceased and managed to bring him out of the vehicle,” the prosecution stated.
By Stephen Kwabena Effah|3news.com|Ghana
Twitter @steviekgh
Some Ghana Cocoa Board [COCOBOD] workers are calling for the arrest of Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) and the Ghana Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU) leadership for staging a demonstration with fake COCOBOD staff.
Find below full statement issued by the CONCERN STAFF OF COCOBOD
DATE: 13TH MAY, 2016
PRESS STATEMENT
GAWU AND ICU FAILS AGAIN…DR. STEPHEN OPUNI TRIUMPH
Isolated GAWU and ICU orchestrated demonstration against Dr. Opuni failed spectacularly – with its failed leaders renting a crowd to do its bidding.
The rented crowds are no staff of COCOBOD but some dismissed staff who engaged in theft and diversion of fertilizers, chemicals and cocoa. They are wee smokers as well as drunkards and have no association with COCOBOD.
The leaders of GAWU and ICU must be arrested immediately to offer prove of the true identity of the so called “Staff of COCOBOD”.
To mobilize unknown people in the name of Staff of COCOBOD is criminal. This is very serious and totally unacceptable.
Staff of COCOBOD are very responsible people and if are truly concern about issues which affect the stability and prosperity of COCOBOD will deal with it through laid down rules and appropriate channels – not through street mobilization.
The failed leaders of GAWU and ICU are desperate. This desperation is to do anything and everything possible to save their respective Unions from loss of huge membership and substantial revenue occasioned by the irreversible breakaway.
To this end, they want to go down with Dr. Opuni by tarnishing his hard earned reputation.
Is it not strange that leadership of GAWU and ICU have gathered at the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations with the same petition they claimed in a joint press statement – they have already submitted to the Chief of Staff at the Flagstaff House.
Is the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations superior to the Flagstaff House?
The Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations must be careful it is not trap and dragged into GAWU/ICU’s obviously dubious character assassination against Dr. Stephen Opuni.
Long Live Dr. Stephen Opuni!!!!
Long Live COCOBOD!!!!
Long Live Ghana!!!
By Concerned Staff of COCOBOD
signed
Ebenezer Arkutu, Spokesman,
Margaret Afriyie, Convener,
Francis Achaew, Member,
Regina Frimpomaa, Organizer,
Nana Kyei, Member
Story by Isaac Essel | 3news.com | Ghana
Ghana Oil Company Limited [GOIL] has approved proposal for a 25 per cent increase in dividend for shareholders following a growth in profit after tax of 10.4 per cent.
A section of the shareholders voting to accept the proposal for the dividend increment
GOIL’s fuel sales, he said, exceeded its own target by 20 per cent during the year 2015.
The company, he said, remained on course to chalk more successes in the fuel retail business through competitive pricing, offering quality additivated products and value for fuel purchased by customers.
“GOIL continued to focus on growing its core business through value-added joint venture engagements, takeover of distressed competitor stations and acquisition of new stations”, he added.
On future prospects, the board chairman said, GOIL will continue to extend its operations towards the upstream sector, providing other services apart from bunkering and improve on added services such as the electronic card payment system or the GOIL Advantage card.
He said the Company would also reinvigorate its efforts to supply bitumen to satisfy growing national demand.
“GOIL intends to establish itself in every district and the name must be a household one and should be associated with quality products and excellent service delivery”, he assured shareholders.
The Managing Director of GOIL, Patrick A.K. Akorli, commended management and staff for the positive performance assuring the company was on the path of growth and will focus on major expansion projects to position it as a big player in the fuel retail business in West Africa.
By 3news.com|Ghana
Four students of the Kumasi Senior High Technical School [KSTS] have been caught performing what is believed to be occultic rituals in an uncompleted building at Tanoso in the Ashanti Region.
The Convention People’s Party (CPP) has taken its Apam foforↄ (New Testament) campaign tour to Damongo, Bole and Sawla in the West Gonja part of the Northern Region.
The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has commended the UK government for organizing the Anti-Corruption Summit to address major issues on corruption and how to combat it.
Programmes Manager of the Ghana Integrity Initiative, Mary Awelana Addah, told 3FM that the initiative is important in the fight against corruption in Africa and the world at large.
It has emerged that it took a record 24-hour for Ghana’s Public Procurement Authority [PPA] to grant a sole-sourcing approval contract for the 116 public buses that were controversially rebranded by Smarttys at the cost of GHS3.6 million.
“Had the PPA merely asked to inspect the buses, it would have discovered that the Ministry was lying and that the branding had been concluded, illegally,” he stated in a Facebook post, adding “Subsequent events have shown that the PPA, at best, did shoddy or no work; or at worst, was complicit it the plot to engage in a corrupt practice”
He wondered why the Authority with all its procurement specialists, could not conduct a market search to determine that the contract sum it approved was “grossly inflated” and “illegally” but rather State Attorneys were the ones to arrive at that conclusion.
“As if this let down of the people of Ghana was not enough, the PPA claimed, nay, BOASTED in its 24-hour miraculous turnaround letter, that its work on the matter (more like non-work) had been “THOROUGH.” That’s the most painful part
‘Sweetheart transaction’
Mr. Ankomah said although the size and length of a contract does not necessarily matter, it was scandalous and insulting to Ghanaians that the entire Smartty’s contract was just a single page, with the rest of the pages being signatures and “useless documents” just to pad the contract up.
He described the highly criticised contract as “sweetheart transaction,” which he suggested received an endorsement from the presidency.
“Yes, almost $1m of your money was being frittered away in an illegal sweetheart transaction with the yet-undenied endorsement of the Office of the President (the same Office of the President that ordered the investigation and does not have the courage, spine or testicular fortitude to publish the AG’s report), and they didn’t even bother to get a first-year lawyer to write a half-decent contract,” he stated.
Background
It emerged December last year that the government spent an outrageous GHC3, 649, 004 from the Ghana oil funds to re-branding the 116 Metro Mass Rapid Transit buses; something that attracted hue and cry.
The Chief of Staf, Julius Debrah consequently directed the Attorney General “to review the contract and associated payment(s)”, following public backlash.
A letter dated December 17, 2015 gave the Attorney General, Marrieta Brew Appiah-Oppong, up to December 21, 2015 to submit its findings.
In her report the AG, Mrs. Appiah-Opong found that there were no cost comparisons to what was submitted by the private company, Smartty’s Management, because of the method of procurement and the procedures used.
A statement issued by Mr Debrah said “the procurement method did not also ensure value for money,” and consequently directed the AG to retrieve the GHC1.9 million being what the statement described as “excess payment made for the service rendered”.
“Independent consultations made by the Attorney General with some leading motor firms in the country confirmed that the contract would have been executed at a cheaper cost if other bids were considered and price comparisons made,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, the backlash from the public forced Transport Minister, Dzifa Attivor to resign her ministerial portfolio, and thanked the NDC government for “for the opportunity offered her to serve, first as Deputy Minister of Transport under the late President JEA Mils, and later as the substantive Minister”.
By Stephen Kwabena Effah|3news.com|Ghana
Twitter @steviekgh
The Minerals Commission of Ghana has offered 400 exploration licences to several hundreds of mining operators to prospect for gold, the chief government policymaker on natural resources has said.
The Minster of Lands and Natural Resources, Nii Osah Mills, said about 200 mining companies are involved in the exploratory operation — mainly for the country’s gold that remains untapped.
The rush for Ghana’s mineral deposits comes at a time concerns have been raised about the rate of depletion of the country’s forest reserves and river banks, as more businesses and individuals turn to gold revenue for survival despite the erratic price of the commodity on the world market.
Mr. Osah Mills said this at the inauguration of Intertek Minerals Ghana Laboratory at Tarkwa in the Western Region.
Ghana, formerly known as the Gold Coast, is well-endowed with substantial mineral resources — with the major ones being gold, diamonds, manganese and bauxite — with gold accounting for over 90% of all mineral revenues annually over the past two decades.
According to figures from the Minerals Commission, gold production from both large and small-scale operators in Ghana has increased from 535,052 ounces in 1990 to 4,341,607 ounces in 2014.
Proceeds from gold exports at the end of 2015, according to the Bank of Ghana, amounted to US$3.2billion amid increased smuggling of the precious metal.
Mr. Osah Mills said the companies that had been awarded exploration licences until the fall in the world gold price generated a lot of various types of samples for the few assay laboratories in Ghana.
He has thus encouraged investors to establish mineral assay laboratories in the country due to the significant mineral resource deposits.
“It took the assay laboratories a long time to analyse samples given to them by the exploration companies. Some big mining companies with the financial capacity sent out their samples to other countries for assaying in order to meet their scheduled work programmes.
“However, I wish to advise that all mineral assay laboratory operations should be environmentally friendly and law-abiding” he added.
He pointed out that the effects of delays in the assaying of exploration companies’ samples include a slowdown of exploration activities; delay in the development of new mines; less jobs and reduction in the revenue generated by the mining sector.
Again, he said the long waiting period for mining companies in assaying their samples gives a field day for illegal miners to operate within the companies’ licenced concession areas, degrade land, and pollute some of the water-bodies.
“It is therefore gratifying that Intertek Minerals Limited has expanded and upgraded its facilities in order to provide quality sample preparation, gold analyses by fire assay, aqua regia and cyanide leach methodologies, carbon analyses, analytical instruments among others — the operations of Intertek Minerals Limited will reduce the long time periods that exploration companies wait before getting their samples analysed,” he said.
He entreated Interek to extend it services beyond assaying only gold to other minerals to benefit from the unknown minerals that are treated as waste material — assay laboratories in other countries are able to carry out multi-element analyses to cover 32 minerals.
“Assay laboratories in others countries are able to carry out multi-element analyses to cover 32 minerals. I wish to encourage all the exploration companies to do the same so that we can maximise the exploitation of our mineral resources; your charges for assaying will also determine the level of patronage by the mining companies,” he said.
Mr. Tyrone Cowland of Intertek Minerals said the company aims to achieve stated capacity of processing 50,000 samples at the facility per month in the near-future, which will require Intertek to employ about 200 people.
Source: B&FT