ISD News File - MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2004

AKUAPEM STATE CONFERS TITLE ON PRESIDENT KUFUOR The Akuapem state has conferred on President Kufuor the title of “Oseadeeyo” for the good work he has done during the past three-and a half years.

The Okuapenmanhene, Oseadeeyo Nana Addo Dankwa III, who gave the President the title last Friday at a durbar to mark the Odwira festival, said it was in recognition of the fact that the President had kept his promises.

Addressing the durbar, President Kufuor appealed to chiefs and leaders of all political parties to condemn all unhealthy practices that threatened the peace and stability of the country.

He re-iterated the government's readiness to abide by all legal and moral requirements to ensure peaceful, free and fair elections, adding that “we expect all contending parties to do the same”.

President Kufuor called on the chiefs to re-unite and restore peace to Akuapem, because the resulting stability would be in the interest of the people and the nation.

Oseadeeyo Nana Addo Dankwa, on his part, thanked the government for the many projects being undertaken on the Akuapem ridge, including the reconstruction of the Nsawam-Aburi roads and the Adenta-Mamfe road.

The occasion also marked the 30th anniversary of the installation of the Okuapehene, Oseadeeyo Nana Addo Darkwa III.

WHETA CHIEFS CALL ON PRESIDENT KUFUOR

A delegation of chiefs and elders of Wheta Traditional Area, in the Volta Region, last Friday, paid a courtesy call on President J. A. Kufuor, at the Castle, Osu.

Receiving them, the President said, there was the need for chiefs to contribute to national development by making less demands for compensation on lands released for projects.

He commended the chiefs of Wheta Traditional Area for pledging to release 42 acres of land for the construction of a senior secondary school and asked other chiefs to emulate the gesture.

The spokesman for the delegation, Torgbui Sorkpor III, the Dufia of Wheta, congratulated President Kufuor and the government for the good work done to develop the country, especially the rural areas, since assuming office.

He noted that although the people of the Volta Region did not vote for the NPP, the government had not discriminated against the region in terms of development projects and assured the President that “the story will not be the same again in terms of voting”.

VICE PRESIDENT IN THE CENTRAL REGION

The Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, has appealed to ghanaians, particularly politicians to be honest in their plea for free and peaceful elections.

He said preaching peace in public and inciting the people to violence behind the scenes, would not help in the development of the nation.

The Vice President, who was speaking at a durbar of chiefs and people of Twifo Praso, Anomabo, Mankessim and Cape Coast, as part of his two-day working visit to the Central Region, said “we must not be rhetoric about peace and the search for sustained development”.

Alhaji Mahama, who said Ghana had witnessed and enjoyed an unrestricted freedom and development, urged politicians not to plunge the country into chaos through campaigns of hate and divisiveness as well as putting fear into the populace.

He asked the people to judge the various candidates in the December elections by their works and record.

The Vice President advised them to go back to serious farming saying that farming was becoming lucrative.

NATIONAL IMMUNISATION PROGRAMME LAUNCHED

Ghana, last Friday joined 22 other countries across Africa to immunise some 74 million children against polio in what has been termed the world's biggest public health campaign.

The campaign is to ensure that these children are immunised against the paralysing disease by the end of November, considered as the “polio high season”.

The Minister for Women and Children's Affairs, Mrs. Gladys Asmah, who launched the start of the programme at the Adabraka polyclinic, appealed to parents to ensure that they had their children immunised against the disease.

VICE PRESIDENT INSPECTS PROJECTS IN CENTRAL REGION

The Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, has inspected and inaugurated a number of development projects in the Mfantsiman District and Cape Coast Municipality in the Central Region.

The projects include the ongoing construction work on a ¢1.2 billion supermarket at Saltpond, the inauguration of a ¢400 million lorry park at Anomabo, both in the Mfantsiman District and a three-unit classroom block for the Kwegyir Aggrey junior secondary school, valued at ¢214 million.

Alhaji Mahama said the completion of the supermarket project at Saltpond would help rekindle business activities in the town.

He said with the number of schools, roads and other infrastructural projects being constructed in the area, Saltpond would regain its glory and fame.

The Minister of Land and Forestry, Professor Dominic Fobih, Minister of State in charge of Secondary, Basic and Girl-Child Education, Ms. Christine Churcher, a Deputy Minister of Information and aspiring parliamentary candidate for Mfantsiman West Constituency, Mr. Stephen Asamoah-Boateng and the Central Regional Chairman of the NPP, Dr. Kweku Ghartey, accompanied the Vice President on the tour.

MINISTRY PUTS RESTRICTION ON PALM OIL EXPORTS

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and President's Special Initiatives (PSI) has placed restrictions on the export and local marketing of palm oil and chillies with immediate effect.

A statement issued by the ministry explained that the restrictions had become necessary to arrest what it called the “unscrupulous behaviour of exporters and producers who are adulterating these food items with harmful contaminants, ostensibly to dye them into a red colour”.

Consequently, it said, no palm oil and chillies shall be allowed to be exported from Ghana unless the exporter applied to the Food and Drugs Board to test and certify that each batch of palm oil and chillies meant for export did not contain any harmful contaminants, especially Sudan dyes.

He said the board would then request the Plant Protection and Regulatory Service Division (PPRSD), the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to issue the necessary phyto-sanitary certificate to cover the export.

FOUR-SUB-METROS READY FOR NHIS

Four sub-metropolitan areas in Accra metropolis, Osu Klotey, Ashiedu Keteke, Okai-Koi and Kpeshie, by the beginning of the last quarter of this year, had completed their office set-ups as well as the coding of streets and houses as part of the implementation process of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the Greater Accra Region, a government statement has indicated.

It said, in all the sub-metropolitan areas in Accra, Kpeshie is far ahead because it had reached the stage of printing health insurance identity cards and facility attendance cards for use by its members in accessing health care.

Two other sub-metropolitan areas, Ayawaso and Ablekuma, were currently engaged in the registration of households and also working hard to complete their office set ups for the implementation of the NHIS, while collection of premiums from members were to start soon, the statement said.

SPORTS BLACK STARS IN A GOALESS DRAW

The senior national soccer team, the Black Stars yesterday drew 0 – 0 with the Simbas of DR Congo in the World Cup qualifying match played at the Kumasi Sports Stadium.