ALARM BLOW Over Ministers’ ‘Chop Chop’

By Halifax Ansah-Addo
Daily Guide of Sept. 28, 2010

Reports reaching DAILY GUIDE indicate that the Information Ministry has suddenly become an avenue for siphoning public funds into pockets of appointees of the Mills administration, with the Minister, John Tia Akologo, being fingered as one of the appointees.
John Tia, who recently jumped to the defence of Stanislav Xoese Dogbe, a Presidential Aide over the GH¢169,000.00 hampers’ scandal even though he was not the Minister at the time when the money was spent, is said to be plundering the account of the ministry with his unrestrained profligacy.
Sources at the Ministry of Information have hinted that President Atta Mills caused the dismissal of Nee Agiri Barnor also known as Mije Barnor as Acting Director of the Information Services Department (ISD), mainly on suspicion that he was a whistle-blower who would not justify corruption by calling it an ‘indiscretion’.
The President’s aim is to ostensibly conceal corruption at the Ministry including the GH¢169,000.00 hampers’ scandal, sources swore to DAILY GUIDE over the weekend.
Days after government sacked Nee Agiri, workers within the ISD have told the media there was collective looting of the taxpayer’s money by the Information Minister, John Tia and his two deputies.
Yesterday, a group within the ISD accused Mr. Tia and his two deputies, Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa and James Agyenim Boateng of unbridled corruption.
The ISD workers, in a press statement, alleged that John Tia picks between GH¢2,000 and GH¢5,000 Ghana cedis from the coffers of the Ministry anytime he travelled outside Accra, according to a Citi FM report.
The group referred to the Minister and his deputies as “greedy, corrupt and selfish”, and alleged that funds meant for the ISD had been deliberately locked up in the Ministry’s coffers.
It claimed only GH¢45,000 of a budget of GH¢340,000 allocated to the ISD was released in 2009.
The concerned staff also alleged that a budget of GH¢145,000 released for public education on the H1N1 influenza was diverted.
They claimed Mije Barnor was sacked because of fears that the widespread corruption at the Ministry could be exposed after Mr. Dogbe was caught pants down with the ¢1.6 billion he was said to have spent on buying hampers for journalists.
John Tia has however denied the allegations and asked his accusers to provide evidence of the alleged corruption.
He told Citi FM yesterday that it was rather the sacked ISD boss who wanted to corrupt him.
However, the Information Minister said he failed to report the matter to the police, but warned him not to try it again.
According to John Tia, since it was a mere intention, he did not find it necessary to report to the police, but rather asked Nee Agiri to go home and sin no more.
Sources from the ISD have told DAILY GUIDE that Agiri Barnor was overly principled on instilling accountability and productivity and was therefore seen as a thorn in the flesh of some bad nuts in the Ministry. This paper was reliably informed that a plush party was thrown to celebrate his dismissal in the home of one of the stooges ‘used’ to plot his dismissal.
The sources said barely 24 hours after his announced expulsion, his official vehicle and office were taken over by a retired officer who was one of the ‘coup makers’.
President Mills’s golden boy - Stanislav Dogbe - cannot account for a cash of GH¢169,000.00 (¢1.69 billion) he admits to have personally received from the Principal Accountant of the Ministry of Information on December 21st, 2009 (three days to Christmas) to “enable me to carry out public education on the 2010 annual budget.” The budget had been read on November 18, 2009, over a month by the Finance Minister, Dr Kwabena Duffuor.
This is the third time within a period of two years that the President Mills has publicly victimized public servants suspected either rightly or wrongly to have raised an alarm over government appointees involved in alleged corrupt practices and cannot account for the taxpayer’s money.
Our sources at the Presidency say Tourism Minister Zita Okaikoi has become the target of the powers that be at the seat of government, after she refused to defend Mr. Dogbe on several radio stations, though she was the Minister for Information when the said money was signed for and collected in a ‘Ghana Must Go’ travelling bag.
It would be recalled that the Mills Government caused the interdiction of a former Chief Director of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Albert Anthony Ampong and Adim Odoom, a Principal Accountant of the same Ministry, after they exposed alleged corrupt practices by the then Sports Minister, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak.
After DAILY GUIDE broke the story that Mr. Dogbe had collected the cash of GH¢169,000 meant to educate the public on the national budget but used an undisclosed part of the money to buy Christmas hampers for some unnamed journalists, a number of pro-government media houses accused Agiri Barnor of being the source of the story.
Interestingly, President Mills was quick to sack Mr. Barnor but he is still rewarding Mr. Dogbe by keeping him as a special aide, though the latter has fumbled in explaining what he used the money for, prompting widespread calls for his dismissal.
A clear instance was when Mr. Dogbe claimed he had given part of the GH¢169,000 cash to the Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists (IFEJ), only for the association’s president, Lloyd Evans to openly come out that his association had never received any money from Mr. Dogbe for any reason at any given period.

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CPP Bosses Sacked

By Hakifax Ansah-Addo
Monday August 16, 2010

TWO ELECTED National Executive officers of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) have been sacked from the party over statements they made that were rather embarrassing to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government in respect of the Kosmos Energy and the STX Korea Housing deal.

The CPP has accordingly issued a categorical statement that party’s General Secretary Ivor Greenstreet and its National Youth Organizer, Kwabena Bomfeh, have been deposed and they “cease with immediate effect to act as Secretary General and Youth organizer respectively.”

The dismissal letter was signed by the party’s first national vice chairman, Dr. Abu Sakara, after the party’s central committee held an emergency meeting last Thursday over the two national officers.

According to the statement, Greenstreet and Bomfeh had also been referred to the party’s disciplinary committee to answer charges of conducts that were deemed to have brought the image of the party into disrepute contrary to Article 77 (a) (ii) of the CPP’s constitution.

It added that pending the outcome of the disciplinary committee, the CPP would have nothing to do with the two elected national officers.

The statement noted that “the central committee wishes to assert the authority vested in the chairman of the party as the ultimate spokesperson and representative of the party superseding all other members in all matters.

“It also cautions all CPP party members that the central committee will not countenance any challenge to the authority of the chairman and leadership outside of laid down internal procedures of discussion and debate in appropriate forum within the party.”

Meanwhile, party Chairman Ladi Nylander, on August 2, 2010, issued a similar press statement regarding Greenstreet and Bomfeh, warning the two that “the party would not tolerate the use of its name to champion personal interests that are not consistent with nor officially approved as party position.”

Nylander, in his statement, said: “the two have recently made statements or taken actions that have been carried in the media as official positions and actions of the party.

“CPP wishes to state most categorically that the statements and actions of the two members of our executive relating to the STX matter and Kosmos Energy are their personal positions and do not in any way represent officially approved positions of the Party.

“The Convention People’s Party (CPP) wishes to distance itself vigorously from recent personal actions by General Secretary Ivor Greenstreet and National Youth Organizer Kwabena Bomfeh,” Nylander noted.

The two sacked officers, who have recently been critical of government over the manner it handled the $1.5bilion STX housing deal, could not be reached for their comments as at press time.

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Employment Minister Hot

By Halifax Ansah-Addo
Friday, 20 August 2010

The Minister for Employment and Social Welfare, Enock Teye Mensah, has been accused of plotting to ‘shit-bomb’ members of the Civil and Local Government Staff Association (CLOSAG) because he suspects they are being sponsored by the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

So angry were the leadership of CLOSAG that they called on their members to embark on daily nationwide demonstrations from Tuesday August 24 to Friday August 27.

“We have been told by the very persons he is plotting with and we are not surprised because that is his stock-in-trade. We are ready for him and as we said in the press statement, we have bought disinfectants like Detol and ‘akeshaa’ to clean up the place.

He cannot scare us with his shit-bomb tactics,” the leadership of CLOSAG told DAILY GUIDE just after they had addressed a press conference in Accra.

The CLOSAG leaders appeared very agitated as some of them overlooked the presence of journalists and rained insults on the gray-haired minister.

The insults were simply unprintable and the actual meanings would be best appreciated in the Ga language which was mostly used.

They had red bands around their heads and wrists as some of them shouted and threw angry fists skyward.

“For now what we would advise the Minister [E.T. Mensah] to do before we call on the President for his removal is, he should undertake courses in Labour-related issues starting from the Ghana Labour College and further it at the University of Cape Coast if he so wishes, for him to update his skills in modern trends in Labour Relations.

This would enable him to build his capacity to administer his office on labour matters and to appropriately advise the President on good governance,” Edward Tennyson Foli, Acting President of the association noted.

CLOSAG told the media that they were angry because E.T. Mensah had described them as a pack of “retired, old-fashioned and blockheaded officers” belonging to an association that “was formed with funding from the New Patriotic Party”.

They alleged that E.T. Mensah had also noted that “the recent nationwide demonstrations by CLOSAG members were undertaken by supporters of the NPP and that the demonstrators were not civil servants”.

According to the association’s Acting President, “CLOSAG is not surprised at his comments because that is the attitude, posture and body language of someone who is fatigued in governance, tracing his background in politics to as far as PNDC era to date. Who looks more old-fashioned and tired of the system?”

E.T. Mensah did not appear perturbed about the development when DAILY GUIDE sought his views in a telephone interview yesterday.

“What they are saying is nothing but a pack of lies against me and because this matter is before the Labour Commission, I do not want to comment on it or glorify them with a response because there is work for me to do.

“All I would say is that I would not be distracted and I want to remain focused. Are they saying they are happy with themselves that out of 103 associations, 102 are working with us except them?

Look, the train has taken off and they better join rather than try to bring government to its knees,” Mr. Mensah said.

CLOSAG in their statement responded to what they alleged Mr. Mensah had said about them. “…That CLOSAG was formed with funding from the NPP is an unfortunate statement coming from a high profile and elderly personality of government who ought to have known the history of Labour Unions and Associations in the country that are currently related to his ministry.

“The Minister is being haunted by his past practices. How on earth could an Association, very conversant with the needs of its members, go bussing party sympathizers to demonstrate?

…It would mean all demonstrations, for example, the recent one by the ICU on utility tariff hikes, was also politically motivated.”

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Zita Flies To USA For Baby

By Halifax Ansah-Adddo
(Daily Guide Friday, 04 June 2010)

Ghana’s Tourism Minister, Zita Sabah Okaikoi, is residing with her maid-servant and bodyguard in a government of Ghana facility while on a private visit to New York to seek maternal care, information reaching DAILY GUIDE from the United States indicates.

Reports say the pregnant Minister and the two are cooling off on the 14th floor of 19 East 47th Street New York, NY 10017, a residential facility at the New York Consulate of the Ghana Mission in the United States.

The facility, DAILY GUIDE learnt, is exclusively reserved for Ghanaian officials on official working trips to the US, and is not to be used by persons on private visits.

The female Minister, together with her bodyguard and servant, are incurring extra cost for the Ghana Mission at a time a number of workers there have not been paid for months.

Apart from staying at the residential facility at the Consulate, reports say Zita and her private maid are chauffeur-driven in government of Ghana vehicles on their private rounds.

The vehicles are fueled and maintained by the Ghanaian tax payer, sources say.

Amazingly, all telephone numbers to the office of the consulate went unanswered and were directed to voice mails when DAILY GUIDE called.

Zita herself could also not be reached on phone and when DAILY GUIDE asked Deputy Information Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, what the Tourism Minister was doing outside the country, he seemed not to be in the know and suggested that Zita herself speaks to the issue.

Foreign Minister Alhaji Mohammad Mumuni could also not be reached on phone and two text messages sent to his phone for a reaction were not answered.

The 15-floor consulate was purchased for Ghana by ex-head of state General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong.

A source who spoke on anonymity explained: “The building is very big and there are some parts that are scarcely used.

It was restructured and rebuilt into two residential facilities by the Kufuor government and the minister is staying with her house-girl in one of them.”

When news broke in Ghana that Zita had travelled outside the country, ostensibly to seek maternal care, she had a lot of public bashing from persons who expressed surprise that a Minister for Tourism under the Mills administration did not find any hospital in Ghana worthy of her status, but had to travel to US just for maternal care.

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Essien Vs Dad: The Full Story

Interview By Halifax Ansah-Addo
Essien Vs Dad: The Full Story
Soccer hero Michael Essien and his dad, James Essien, are trading accusations and counter accusations about who neglected who and the world is watching the tango between dad and son.
Michael has issued a detailed press statement on the matter and threatened to take a few media houses to court because he was unhappy about the way the story was carried and when News-One contacted James for an interview on the matter, he gave some shocking revelations.
We present excerpts of the interview as well as a full text of Michael’s press statement.
News-One: “You seem to be destroying your son with this claim that he has neglected you.
James Essien: “It is not true I am out to destroy Michael, at least I am proud he has sent my name to the international levels and if I played football for Gold Coast and my son is playing for Ghana, what can I say but to be proud of him but truth must also be said that Essien is not looking after me as he is making the world to believe”
News-One: Why is not looking after you as you are alleging
James Essien: I believe it is because he grew up with the mother, Aba, so he is closer to her and takes care of her but I am an old man and I cannot tell lies against my own son, Michael does not care about me. I have not seen him for the past 15 years and I have not spoken to him for the past six years because I do not even have his number, let alone contact him and his mother has refused to give me the number; the sister, Diana also says she does not have the number”
News-One: But you know where to contact him when he is in Ghana.
James Essien: “No I do not. There was this time I heard he was in Ghana and would be training at the stadium so I dressed in my best cloths and travelled all the way to Accra…After the training I went to the dressing room but when my son saw me, he bent his head as if he was lacing his boots and remained there for over 15 minutes so I went to him and raised his head.
“Michael asked me who brought me to the stadium and it came to me as a surprise and I told him I was playing football at the stadium before he was born….When he got ready to leave I followed him to his car and reminded him that I came to see him for a discussion but he insisted he was busy.
“I then asked for transportation back home but he did not give me and asked me to meet him at Novotel the next Monday. I managed to perch with friends in Accra and finally got to Novotel on Monday only to be told Michael Essien left the country Friday night soon after my meeting with him”
News-One: Could it be he was hurt because you neglected him as a child?
James Essien: “Ha ha ha ha. I did not neglect Michael. When the mother and I broke up, he was about two years so all the children stayed with her but they always came to me during festivals and some holidays, it was after he got to France that I stopped hearing from him and had never had his number.
“I looked after him and I was the one who even sent him to Sewedro Secondary school after his JSS. On that day I even had an accident and this is a story many people in Sewedro still remember. From there he had a scholarship to St. Augustine.
“I must confess I was not sending him money when he was in school but it was not deliberate because I was not having money at the time… I did my best to look after him but as a revenue collector what could I have done. I took him to secondary school, when he had the Liberty opportunity I played a major role. You ask Alhaji Sly Tetteh.”
News-One: What about the three-bed room house he built for you?
James Essien: “This is where I live; a mud house built by my brother many years ago even before Michael was born. It is the room in which I stay that he renovated and added a hall. He has never built me a house. I do not believe he wrote that statement himself.”
News-One: He claims he sends you money for your up-keep and car maintenance.
James Essien: “Yes once in a while he sends me GH¢500 (about $400) but the money is not regular and at times has about six months interval. As for the car, it is still at the workshop because there is no money to repair it. I am the third person to own that car and it is not as new as you think.
News-One: Is it true he pays for your medical bills and sent you to the Asikuma Hospital?
James Essein: “If Michael Essien says he sent me to Assikuma Hospital, it is a big lie; it is a traditional medicine man that comes here to take care of me.”
News-One: “If you had a message for your son, what would it be?
James Essien: “Oh I want to see him. We should live as father and son. It is not that I am interested in burdening him with my problems. I was taking care of myself before Michael was born and since then I still take care of myself; look I was born on 28th September 1932 so I not a small boy and there is very little I still expect from this life. But Michael is my son, my blood, the one that makes me proud all over the world and I must at least be made to feel like a father but not a stranger to him. I would want him to know I still love him as my child and follow his career and all his games. In fact there are things I want to tell him as a father, things I want to tell him in person.”
News-One: Thank you for the opportunity.
James Essien: Thank you and tell those who do not believe what I am saying to come here to see things for themselves.”
FULL MICHAEL ESSIEN STATEMENT TO THE PRESS ON FATHER’S CLAIMSI have faced many many difficult challenges in my life but this is the hardest thing I have ever done as my heart bleeds over the false statements recently peddled by a small section of the Ghanaian media goaded by my own father.
I had never wanted to discuss my family in public or any good I do to anyone because when you do good, you go only for God’s recognition.
But for the thousands of Ghanaians and the highly respectable people of our country who have contacted me and know what I have consistently done for my father, I need to react to stop the attempt to destroy me in the eyes of the people of Ghana and disgrace my family.
Given what I have done for my father, when I was told of the false, vile and degrading comments he made about me, I wept because people normally do not get insults for doing good.
But my father decided to pay me back in such a terrible way. Because of this I have been unfortunately forced to say what I have done for him because he has gone to the extreme to disgrace my family. I will like to state the following facts:
1. My father currently lives in a three-bedroom house (not mud house) I instructed my sister to build for him with my own money.
2. He is visited monthly and more recently twice a week by my sister Diana on my orders to regularly give him money and other essentials I send. My mother, whom he has insulted so much, also provides for him.
3. I bought a car for him to make his transportation easier and part of the money I provide for him is used to fuel the car or repair it when it breaks down.
4. When his illness broke out I asked for him to be taken to the Asikuma Hospital but he said he wants traditional medicine. I provided money for him to undergo traditional treatment. It came to nothing and I ordered for him to be taken to the hospital. My family, I believe have also organised for a nurse to come home and look after him on regular basis.

Because of these reasons and many more reasons I won’t state publicly, I am shocked by what he is alleged to have said but God knows I have done my best to thoroughly look after a man who didn’t even raise me or take part in my upbringing and who has 8 other children who can help.
What has surprised me though is how certain media houses in Ghana can present one side of a story and not seek to check the other side before going all out to criticise my whole family.
I want to state here categorically that even after such distasteful comments; I will continue to support my father as I believe it is the right thing to do.
I will not discuss this matter further as I have asked my legal team in Ghana to investigate all the allegations and the media that callously carried out this agenda and take action where necessary.
Thank you
Signed: Michael Essien.

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Akwapim Chief Wild Over Sex....“…Arse-hole…Motherfucker…I’ll Shoot You…”

News-One of Wednesday Dec. 16, 2009

Talks making the rounds are that the Tufuhene of Akropong- Akwapim, Nana Yaw Ampem Darko, known in private life as George Darko of ‘Ako Te Brofo’ fame, may be one of the persons behind the pornography sex scandal that hit the area recently.
Though the reports are not yet confirmed, George Darko, an ace musician, has denied that he was one of the persons who got a number of girls from the area to strip naked and allow their photos to be taken for a pornographic production which would be sold in Germany.
News-One gathered that when Happy FM in Accra first broke the story, George Darko went to the station twice to deny that he had a his involvement in the scandal though his name had not been mentioned.
He had also spent a good part of his life in Germany, they very country where the said pornography is believed to be on sale and when News-One visited the Akropong area, several residents said it is strongly suspected that George Darko may have something to do with the matter.
The Chief cum musician got very angry and screamed all sorts of vulgarisms, curses and threats when News-One asked him of the reports. Below are excerpts of the interaction between George Darko and the News-One reporter.
Nana George Darko: You are a stupid idiot; a motherfucker arse-hole. Don’t ask me such a stupid question again. Do you hate me? Or is it the name George Darko you hate? Have I called your girl friend?
Reporter: I don’t have a problem with you.
Nana George Darko: Why would you put such a calamity on me? Tell me one reason.
Reporter: I have not done what you are alleging.
Nana George Darko: Look my brother if I had a gun in front of me, I would have killed you. I swear my father. I swear God, I would have killed you.
Reporter: You are threatening the life of a journalist with a gun
Nana George Darko: And so what
Reporter: And you call yourself a Chief?
Nana George Darko: If I have not done something and you want to soil my reputation what do you want me to do? I have worked for my name and I respect my name and I know what God has done for me and I don’t want you to tarnish my reputation.
Reporter: I asked you a simple question and you insulted everything on me; from my motherfucker to me arse-hole.
Nana George Darko: And so what?
Reporter: And so you are being unfair to me.
Nana George Darko: Your motherfucker and so what? You are soiling me reputation and it is your motherfucker you are concerned about? What you told me was that you hear I am one of the persons behind this thing….
Reporter: Don’t I have the right to hear things?
Nana George Darko: You have the right to hear things and so what?
Reporter: And don’t I have the right to ask questions?
Nana George Darko: You have done your conclusions before asking the questions. How can I George Darko indulge in such a shameful act? You should not have even mentioned that and let me tell you have thrown the baby away with the bath water okay?
Reporter: Nana, I would lodge a complaint of threat to murder against you.
Nana George Darko: I don’t care….You should have asked me that what is going on and I would tell you everything. But when you ask me that you have heard I am one of the people behind this thing, charley, I swear God, I swear my God-damn motherfucker, I swear my stool and everything, that look, I don’t know you but anyway God save you.
About 200 of the said photos available to News-One appeared completely different from the ones in the conventional pornographic magazines. Many of the girls had horrible “vital statistics” with very bushy and unkempt pubic hairs.
While some appeared to be teenagers and had sores and blisters on their bodies, others were nursing mothers with pot bellies and even went along with their babies. Many of them even had unclean panties aka ‘pioto’, with holes in them.

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Ghana’s Creeping Lunacy

By Halifax Ansah-Addo
Jaws dropped in Ghana when news broke that two adult men, including a primary school teacher, had been stripped naked and paraded in town by some armed soldiers on official duty in the Northern sector of the country.
Neighbors of the two naked men who attempted to go to their rescue were beaten and shoved aside as the men were marched to a basic school in the community and mocked before several children including some pupils of one of the naked men.
The episode is not different from what Ghanaian soldiers do to any civilian they spot wearing any form of military camouflage material. Even when the camouflage has not been sown as an army uniform, the wearer would still be forced to remove it and hand over immediately. Yet many boutiques in Ghana have on sale designer clothing in the form of military camouflage.
The Ghana Armed Forces has been silent over this widely-spread development and it was thus not unexpected that once again, the military command came out to publicly deny the strip-naked story, even when the military had not conducted any form of investigations into the matter.
A fortnight later, Daily Guide, the paper I work for, produced a secret video recording of the episode. The video captured the two men being assaulted by soldiers dressed as if they were going to war. The two men had been stripped completely naked and were bleeding, apparently from severe torture they had endured from the soldiers.
The video also captured the soldiers pushing the muzzle of their guns into the mounts of the naked men whose hands had been tied at their backs.
Though the video captured the faces of the soldiers behind the abuses, no arrests had been made and many several other Ghanaians are continuously forced by soldiers to go naked in public anytime they are spotted wearing any form of military camouflage.
The insanity is gaining grounds and makes raised doubts whether indeed Ghana still deserves to be touted as an ‘icon of democracy in Africa’ where rule of law is respected.
In the Ghanaian culture, it is sacrilegious for a man to be forced to walk in town naked. It is taken that such a man has been stripped of his dignity, honor and self respect. It is tantamount to killing his very soul.

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