Mr. Ibrahim Attagah, a khebab seller at the WATO Club, a night club in the centre of Accra, has been crowned `Mr. Belly-Full'. This happened when he emerged champion of an eating competition organised at the Food And Beverage Fair in Accra.
He consumed 4 sachets of FANYOGO (Yoghurt) in 18 seconds during the last round to receive the first prize of a FANYOGO `T' shirt, a key ring and a pen. He was followed by Mr. Eric Kodjo who had a `T' shirt and a pen. There were consolation prizes for all the contestants who took part in the eating competition. This included a lady. The competition formed part of the fair dubbed `Belly Full '95'. It was sponsored by Fan Milk Ghana Limited and attracted a lot of people from all walks of life. Business was brisk at all the stands as people took advantage to shop at reduced prices and have fun at the same time.
Mr Emmanuel Dadson, the Exhibition Director, expressed satisfaction with the general patronage and the high quality of and services that were provided at the fair. `We hope to improve on this in the next fair which comes off in 1997', he added.
The six-day fair, the first of its kind, was aimed at bringing manufacturers and producers together for an exchange of ideas on how best to improve the food industry.
The government has awarded three roads in the Adansi West District on rehabilitation contract at a cost of ¢295m. Work on the Bobriase-Kyiaboso, Ayaase-Fomena and Ampunyase Nkwanta-Apunyase roads is being undertaken by a Ghanaian firm, Kwatto Complex Limited and funded by the government.
These were disclosed by Mr. Paul Victor Obeng, Presidential Adviser on Governmental Affairs, when he commissioned three projects jointly undertaken by the District Assembly and the people of Ayaase. They were a three-classroom Junior Secondary School block, a KVIP and a headteacher's bungalow.
Mr. Obeng announced that some towns in the district namely Ayaase, Akrofuom, Meduma and two others, would soon be connected to the national electricity grid. He regretted that towns in the Adansi traditional area did not have some social amenities for their people. Mr. Obeng, therefore, appealed to the chiefs and people to mobilise themselves and contribute effectively to the development of the area which abounds in both human and natural resources. He assured them that the abandoned Fomena hospital complex would be re-activated soon while the Bodweseanwo Health Centre has been awarded on contract for work to begin soon on them. Mr. Obeng said that major towns in the area would be included in the rural water project for next year.
Mr. De Graft Kwami Agyei, Adansi West District Chief Executive, in a welcoming address, said a hand-dug well will soon be constructed for the people. The Assembly has provided building materials worth about ¢2m to the people towards the rehabilitation of an abandoned court building for teachers' bungalows. Nana Appianing Kwafroamoa III, Ayaasehene and Acting President of the Adansi Traditional Council, appealed to the people to join the voters' registration exercise which is underway. Mr. Obeng was later installed `Abakomahene' (a sub-divisional chief) under the stool name of Nana Kwadwo VI.
The First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, has called on all eligible Ghanaians to register to enable a new and accurate voters' register to be compiled for the country.
Addressing a durbar of chiefs and people of Ekumfi Otuam to round off their annual `Akwambo' festival, Nana Konadu explained that the registration exercise is to eliminate any causes for uncertainty and distrust among political parties. This, she said, is to ensure a fair conduct of elections next year.
She asked the people not to be misled by some unpatriotic citizens spreading false information to prevent the rural communities from registering. The First Lady told the durbar, `it is not true that people who registered in the previous exercise before the 1992 elections need not register again. Anyone who tells you this is a liar'. She reminded them that every Ghanaian citizen who is 18 years and above must register again any day between October 1 and 15, 1995. She stressed that if they failed to register within the time, they would not be allowed to vote during next year's elections. Nana Konadu said anyone spreading false information about the registration procedures or trying to influence or intimidate people should be reported to the police or officials of the National Electoral Commission.
She called on the co-operation of all Ghanaians to make the registration exercise a success.
President Rawlings on Saturday September 30, pressed a switch to symbolically connect Axim to the national electricity grid.
The commissioning formed part of the annual Kundum festival of the chiefs and people of the Upper and Lower Axim which brings them together. Axim used to be supplied with power from a diesel engine which broke down in February of this year. The ceremony itself was made possible with a ¢90m French loan from the government funding agency, Caisse Française de Dévelopement. The loan was used to finance other projects in District Capitals like Agona Nkwanta and Breman Asikuma in the Central and Western regions.
President Rawlings said that from Axim, the line will be extended to Half Assin in the Jomoro district next year. Smaller communities near the power line would be considered under the self-help electrification project.
The president spoke about delays in extending power to Elubo, Asankragwa and Enchi and said the delays were not government making but rather bureaucratic procedures the in disbursement of funds. President Rawlings said ¢40m has been released for the continuation of work on improving water supplies at Axim and Essiama. Additional funding has been obtained for further water projects at Axim as well as improve water supplies at Nkroful and Aiyinase. President Rawlings said that roads have been a problem in the district and government is taking steps to correct the imbalance. Some roads have been earmarked for re-graveling including the Axim town roads.
Dr. Frank Abu, Western Regional Minister, said the government will extend electric power to strategic settlements to attract investors. Already, investors are preparing to reactivate industries such as the Essiam Oil Mills and the Aiyinase Oil Palm Mill. Others have shown interest in the development of Tourism as well as Silica, Kaolin and bye-products from coconut.
Four communities in the Amanfro electoral area near Prako in the Akwapim South District, have embarked on a number of school projects.
The projects estimated at ¢17m, include a Junior Secondary School (JSS), and a Day Care Centre at Amanfro, and Local Authority Primary School projects at Oparekrom, Wangala and Avaga. Mr. Emmanuel Manu, Assembly Member for the area, disclosed these to the Ghana News Agency after taking reporters round to inspect some of the projects. He said it would require ¢6.5m to complete the Amanfro JSS on which ¢2m has so far been spent. Mr. Menu said residents are paying levies of ¢2,000 a man and ¢1,000 a woman, while non-residents are contributing ¢5,000 a man and ¢3,000 a woman.
The Ghana-Denmark Friendship Association has presented a number of items worth $18,000 to the Kwawu Government Hospital in the Kwawu South District. They include wheel chairs, beds, electric typewriters and mattresses.
A ¢20m isolation ward rehabilitated by the District Assembly has also been commissioned while a 14-member Board of Trustees of the hospital's ¢500m endowment fund, was also inaugurated. In an address read on his behalf, the Minister for Health, Commodore Steve Obimpeh (Rtd), commended the Association and other foreign societies for their assistance to the health sector. He said that the modest target of the endowment fund, if managed efficiently, will improve the quality of health care provided at the hospital. Dr. Christiana Amoako-Nuama, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, said that the fund will go a long way to improve the socio-economic status of the area and the country as a whole as it would ensure good health for better productivity.
Four groups have declared their intentions to form political parties to contest the 1996 elections, the National Electoral Commission (NEC), has confirmed.
The groups have collected registration and other processing documents from the Commission for processing, Mr. David Kanga, the Deputy Chairman of operations of the NEC has reported. Among the leaders of one of the groups is Mr. Dan Lartey, a publisher and veteran politician. His party's name is `Great Consolidated People's Party (GCPP)'. The other three, Mr Kanga said, are yet to submit details of founding members and party names. He said that the new parties are being registered under the existing political party registration law.
The on-going registration exercise is not without problems. It was reported in the October 5, 1995 edition of the Ghanaian Times that the lack of proper means of transport to 73 islands on the Volta River, may mean that the people on these islands cannot be registered.
Residents on 39 islands in the Kete Krachi district and 19 in the Jasikan district among others, could not be reached by officials of the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), during the educational campaign on the voters' registration.
Reports coming in from the Northern part of the country indicate that some problems being encountered include uneven distribution of cameras and shortage of registration materials.
`Culled from `People And Places'
An elderly man went all the way from Abeka to Lapaz to kick the bucket at the Zion City Spot, a drinking joint at Achimota.
An eye witness to the incident told the P&P (People And Places) that in the early hours of September 28, 1995, an old man who wanted to attend to nature's call, jumped the KVIP queue and spent an unusually long time inside. The man whose name was given as Mr. Asante, was said to have walked a few metres away from the KVIP to sit in a chair at a shop nearby. The shopkeeper, however, asked him to leave since she was about to sweep the area.
As if being driven gradually to his grave, the witness disclosed that the deceased further walked to the Zion City Spot and slumbed into one of the chairs while the bar was still not yet opened.
A few minutes later, some children who usually play around the park in front of the bar, saw the man in an unusual position and so raised an alarm. Neighbours who hastened to the call, realised that the man was dead. Some of the residents then reported the incidence to the Achimota Police. After inspecting the body, the Police found an acquaintance of the dead man, who led them to the deceased house. Accompanied by some relatives of the deceased, the Police later conveyed the body to the Korle-Bu mortuary.
`Culled from `People And Places'
With blood oozing from cuts on his head and quite unconscious, Mr. Adikama Bunsah, a 40 year-old watchman, defied pain and possible death, in his life and death bid to apprehend a Nissan Urvan bus driver who had knocked him down and was speeding off.
Making the shocking hit-and-run case to the P&P, Chief Superintendent K.K. Dwamena of the Tesano Police Station, said at about 7:10pm on September 7, 1995, Adikama was on his way to work, when in an attempt to cross the Achimota-Nsawam road at the ABC junction, a speeding Nissan Urvan knocked and swept him off the road.
Mr. Bunsah was crushed on the asphalt road and sustained serious cuts on the head. Instead of stopping to pick the injured man to a hospital, the driver callously accelerated off. In severe pain and with his life blood flowing freely, Adikama, however, managed with superhuman effort to cling onto the bus while it was moving off.
The driver, unaware of the situation, still did not stop but kept on speeding away. Adikama was still being dragged on the asphalt until shocked and furious passers-by succeeded in trapping the driver to stop at quite a distance away, the Police elaborated. The injured Adikama was by then covered all over with blood. His trousers and shirt had been torn into pieces and he had lost two of his left toes. He was rushed in a sympathiser's car to the hospital.
The crowd then dragged the driver to the Tesano Police Station, where a complaint was lodged before him. He is to be arraigned before court.
In a later development, a group of sympathisers who called themselves Anti-Accident Watchdogs, marched to the P&P offices to demand that such callous drivers be put behind bars for life. They said that such drivers are a threat to life and property in the society and must not be allowed to mix with other citizens.
`Culled from `People And Places'
Thirty-six year old Mr. Prosper Ledi would always be thankful to his creator for narrowly escaping the clutches of highway men who attacked his car on the Accra-Tema motorway.
Shaken, he recounted his experience to the P&P at the Ashaiman Police Station near Accra, where he lodged a complaint soon after the incident. According to Mr. Prosper Ledi, Managing Director of Proko Enterprise at Ho in the Volta Region, he was making a return trip to Ho that evening in his private car.
He said he had almost gotten to the end of the motorway when he saw a group of people hiding among the shrubs in between the dual carriage road, when all of a sudden, a stone was thrown at his windscreen. `Because of the speed at which I was travelling, the stone missed the windscreen but hit the side glass of the left passenger door, shattering it. Fortunately, the back seat was unoccupied,' he said.
Suspecting their intentions, Mr. Ledi disclosed that he accelerated off to the Ashaiman Police Station to lodge a complaint. Pleading anonymity, a lady passenger in the car, who was very shaken and terrified could only say, `only God saved us'. The young businessman who also kept praising God for his narrow escape, later asked the question, `How safe are we on our highways'?
Commenting, Detective Corporal Joe Bamfo said there had been a series of such cases reported to the station. He said the robbers stone the on-coming cars in a bid to force the drivers to stop, or, cause them to swerve off the road resulting in accidents. They then take the opportunity to rob the victims. He hinted that there had been six of such complaints Between June and July this year. He said that the Police mounted an intensive patrol around the area that resulted in several arrests. Asked what the Police would do the free the motorway of such danger, the Detective Corporal said that the report would be forwarded to his superior officers who would then decide on what action to take. He, however, cautioned users of the motorway to be extra-vigilant.
`Culled from `People And Places'
The Korle-Bu Police have apprehended one of the most notorious rapists at the Mamprobi Indafa soccer field.
The alleged rapist, is the ring leader of a gang that patrols the soccer field at night to harass innocent citizens who also use the field for prayers or as a romantic meeting place.
According to an insider, the gang operates between 7:00pm and midnight and attack their victims by accusing them of having sex in public. They produce fake ID cards and later attack their victims by slapping and manhandling them. The female victims are then subjected to gang rape which they term `gala'.
According to the Korle-Bu Police, a couple was returning from Mamprobi and decided to use the Indafa park as a short-cut. On reaching the field, the gang confronted the couple and accused them of flirting. The gangsters executed their strategy by producing their fake ID cards and pretending to cause their arrest. They then gave them some slaps which forced the two to succumb to their threats as they were also armed with sharp cutlasses and two daggers.
The man was then given a bushy area surrounding the field to weed at that unholy hour as his punishment. The leader of the gang dragged the lady into a nearby bush where he forcibly had sex with her. He later released her thus depriving his other accomplices of having their turn. This infuriated them and an argument ensued amongst the gang. The couple then seized the opportunity to ran away and went straight to the Korle-Bu Police station to lodge a complaint. The lady, who could identify the leader, helped the Police trace him to his residence upon a tip-off. He has been remanded in custody pending further investigations while his accomplices are on the run.