₦airaland Forum

Does anyone have a very good Nissan mechanic they can recommend?

Does anyone have a very good Nissan mechanic they can recommend?

In the seventies, only the Carter(First) and Eko (Second) Bridges linked the Island with the mainland.

Carter bridge was constructed by the colonial government while the military ( I believe Gowon) built the Eko Bridge.

The odd and even number concept was adopted to reduce vehicular movement in the seventies. Odd-number vehicles could ply the major roads on particular days and even-number cars on the other days. Ojuelegba and Yaba were two major bottlenecks in those days. Fela's song Ojuelegba , was about the regular confusion at the place. Whenever we were going to school and climbed the overhead bridge at Jibowu (from where we could clearly see the traffic situation at Yaba), my dad would remark Yaba O wo loni o! - meaning Yaba is messed up today.

In those days, people such as my parents had to have two cars -one even and the other odd numbered. My dad still advises me today to ensure that my cars are evenly spread between odd and even - just in case the number regime returns!


The Third Mainland Bridge was constructed by the Babangida government and was actually named after him (Ibrahim Babangida Boulevard) on completion. That name did not stick particularly because of the June 12 Saga which shortly followed the opening of the bridge. In the first phase of the project, Adeniji to Adekunle was done and open to traffic. When completed, the Adekunle-Oworo section of the bridge was not open to traffic for about six months.

Before the Adekunle-Oworo section was opened, I worked variously at Lagos Island and VI and had to go through Adekunle to join Ikorodu road. That stretch from the Third Mainland Bride through Herbert Macaulay was hell. The traffic used to be very bad. Thank God that in those days, the incidence of robbery in the traffic hadn't started (at least I neither experienced nor heard of it).

That's how we used to "cope" then.

salaksmana: 'Last Christmas, he told me: "Let's get married and make a son" and I accepted. Now I'm waiting for Mario to discover the sex of the child, although he would prefer a boy, and to choose the name.'

peaking to Italian website Sport Mediaset, she said: 'I called the day before the game against Germany and I said, I'm expecting a baby, it's your baby.

'After a pause he said 'You gave me the best news of the world.''

Raffaella was surprised when she discovered that she was pregnant in the middle of May, because she ended her relationship with Mario on 29 April.

How is he sure it is his baby?

salaksmana: 'Last Christmas, he told me: "Let's get married and make a son" and I accepted. Now I'm waiting for Mario to discover the sex of the child, although he would prefer a boy, and to choose the name.'

peaking to Italian website Sport Mediaset, she said: 'I called the day before the game against Germany and I said, I'm expecting a baby, it's your baby.

'After a pause he said 'You gave me the best news of the world.''

Raffaella was surprised when she discovered that she was pregnant in the middle of May, because she ended her relationship with Mario on 29 April.

All this information in the public domain just to prove it is his baby?

Germannig: Some Igbos are really styypid locating expensive ventures outside Igboland in an inflammable society like Nigeria. All the Boko Haram bombings and the signs that Nigeria may break up means nothing to them? There are very few cardiac centers in Nigeria and no matter the location within Nigeria, Nigerians who will not be able to travel overseas for medical matters will patronize it. Why not build it in the SE? How many Yorubas and northerners build things outside their regions?

Aliko Dangote must be the most deluded businessman in Nigeria for investing heavily outside of the "north"!

Right?

latest development?

I dey laff

JJ'S LIST OF TRAITORS (2)

Jerry John Rawlings, like his successor, former president John Agyekum Kufuor who averred in a television interview that he has no any regrets over his eight-year rule of the country, also believes he has acquitted himself creditably in his almost 19-year rule of the country.

Of course, in the case of the former junta head Jerry Rawlings, it is on record that in 1995 at a Church of Pentecostal conference at the International Trade Fair, he did apologize for “the excesses” of his June 4 and 31st December revolutions.

The Founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and former president of Ghana, Jerry John Rawlings has often been referred to by political pundits as an enigma who is both an asset and a liability to his party in its electioneering struggles since the birth of the Fourth Republic.

Some say he is an asset because it was he Rawlings, and he alone who won the elections for the party in the highly acrimonious 2008 presidential run-off. He is an asset they say because he draws the crowds for the party at rallies and makes the front pages, whether for the good or bad reasons.

Ever since his burst onto the political scene of this country in the late 1970s, 'JJ', as he is affectionately called, has had a problem virtually with all his comrades, appointees and closed confidants, including family members, be it in the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) or National Democratic Congress (NDC 1) and NDC 2 under President John Atta Mills.

Two weeks ago, whilst addressing the 30th anniversary ceremony of the 31st December Women's Movement, Jerry Rawlings described his protégé President Mills and his administration as 'traitors' and turncoats who can be dangerous than even the 'perceived enemies' in the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).

He said [B]“we have always had to fight against one 'enemy' or opposition. If they can behave in a civil way it will be fair to call them opposition but seeing how they rounded up and jailed innocent people and killed others can we be wrong to sometimes describe them as enemies?

“This time, however, we are fighting against two enemies – one the perceived enemy (referring to the NPP) and the other one the traitor (NDC). We cannot fight both at the same time and therefore one has to go”.

As stated in part one of this article, this isn't the last time Rawlings will refer to close associates, colleagues and acquaintance as traitors and turncoats, and cited the best man at his wedding to Nana Konadu, Major Kojo Boakye Djan, the man who also led the assault by junior army officers to save Rawlings' life after his botched attempt at overthrowing the incompetent and corrupt military government of General Fredrick Akufo on May 15th 1979.

It was also indicated how Jerry Rawlings has also been in conflict with most of his colleagues on the AFRC whom he often calls traitors.

Among the next badge of colleagues, friends and appointees of Rawlings to have been tagged turncoats or traitors include: Captain Kojo Tsikata, his long time National Security Capo who is also a relative, Chris Bukari Atim, Sgt Daniel Alolga Akata Poree, Joachin Amartei Kwei, General Nunoo Mensah and W/O Joseph Adjei Boadi, all former members of the PNDC.

Others include Zaya Igbo, Paul Victor Obeng and the late Ato Austin. The rest include Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata, Dr. Obed Asamoah and Alhaji Iddrisu Mahama

Others who put up with the label, 'greedy bastards' prior to Mr. Rawlings lumping the whole NDC, a party he founded as traitors are: Mr. Ato Ahwoi, Kwamena Ahwoi, Totobi Kwakye, Kwame Peprah and Professor Kofi Awoonor.

The current Eastern Regional Minister and former special aide to the Rawlingses, Victor Emmanuel Smith; Fifi Kwetey, a Deputy Finance Minister and a former close confidant of Rawlings; Trade minister, Hannah Tetteh and Deputy Water Resources and Works and Housing Minister, Dr. Hannah Bissiw.

All the aforementioned individuals have one way or the other offered dedicated service to the former President but have now been conveniently tagged as traitors by Mr. Rawlings simply because they have chosen to demonstrate loyalty to then presidential candidate-elect and now president, John Atta Mills.

In the next edition of this article, read all about each and every one of the individuals mention above, their commitment and loyalty to the NDC and the leadership role of former president Rawlings, some time at the peril of their lives.

http://www.modernghana.com/news/398325/1/jjs-list-of-traitors-2.html

JJ’s List Of Traitors (1)

Kojo Boakye Djan & AFRC Members, first candidates

At the 30th Anniversary ceremony of the 31st December Women’s Movement last week, the 15th of May, 2012; former president and founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Jerry Rawlings minced no words in describing members of the Mills administration as traitors and turncoats.

The former military strongman told his audience that “we have always had to fight against one ‘enemy’ or opposition. If they can behave in a civil way it will be fair to call them opposition but seeing how they rounded up and jailed innocent people, terrorised and killed others, can we be wrong to sometimes describe them as enemies?

“This time however, we are fighting against two enemies – one the perceived enemy (referring to the NPP) and the other one the traitor (NDC). We cannot fight both at the same time and therefore one has to go”.

This is not the first time former president Rawlings has referred to close associates, colleagues and acquaintance as traitors and turncoats.

Whiles addressing an enthusiastic audience at the Accra International Conference Centre on the 5th of May last year at the launch of his wife’s bid for the NDC presidential slot, former President Jerry John Rawlings again referred to opponents to Konadu as traitors claiming, the party was made up of people with conscience and high principles and called on them not to allow themselves to lose those values. He said “the time had come for members of the NDC to swallow the bitter pill and oust members who had lost touch with the ideals of the party, insisting “NDC could only be brought back on track if “we change gear, until we change the driver…” Beginning from today we bring to our esteemed readers a lineup of friends, associates, acquaintances and family members of Jerry Rawlings who have fallen out with him because he perceives them as traitors who can be dangerous. Major Kwadwo Boakye-Djan the man who planned the coup that brought Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings to power in Ghana on 4 June 1979 and together with other junior officers saved J.J. Rawlings from possible execution by the Supreme Military Council (SMC II) of General Akufo for planning a coup in the previous month has been Rawlings’ pioneered traitor. Major Kwadwo Boakye-Djan was not only the best man at Rawlings’ wedding to Nana Konadu, but according to the New Africa Magazine, Boakye Djan was also the one who led the delegation that went to ask the hand of Nana Konadu Agyeman from her parents when the time came for Rawlings to marry her. Major Boakye Djan who said “our friendship grew by leaps and bounds” recalls how at Rawlings’ wedding to Konadu, he and Rawlings wore a tunic. They did not wear anything fanciful. They wore radical things and looking back, it was good”.

His crime for being labeled a traitor by his pal, Rawlings was because, at the height of the AFRC handing over power to the then president-elect Dr. Hilla Liman in September 1979, Rawlings and a section of members of the AFRC who had a change of mind were exploring the opportunity to abandon the handover arrangements and hold on to power, but Major Kojo Boakye Djan and the rest of the AFRC members scuttled that effort and it did not go down well with the former junta leader. The other reason, which was widely reported in the media, is the fact that after the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) chaired by Rawlings with Boakye Djan as Official Spokesperson eventually handed over power to Dr. Hilla Liman and his People’s National Party; Rawlings flatly rejected the resettlement package offered members of the out-gone junta by the Liman administration, but Boakye Djan and the rest availed themselves to it. The resettlement package included promotions/retirement from the military, undisclosed sums of cash, scholarships and bursaries to travel and study abroad so as to be reintegrated back into civil life to reduce any temptation on their part to disturb the command structure of the then collapsing armed forces. Jerry Rawlings has since then been referring to all his colleagues in the AFRC who had benefitted from the Liman’s government largess and who actually saved his life following his abortive and reckless May 15 uprising and arrest, as traitors. Amongst them include: Captain Kojo Boakye Djan, Major Mensah-Poku, Major Mensah Gbedema, Captain Kwabena Baah Achamfuor, Warrant Officer (II) Harry K. Obeng and Staff Sergeant Alex Adjei. The rest are, Corporal Owusu Boateng, Leading Aircraftman john N. Gatsiko, Lance Corporal Peter Tasiri, Lance Corporal Ansah Atiemo, Lance Corporal Sarkodiee-Addo, Corporal Sheik Tetteh and Private Owusu Adu.

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=239849

Samuel Nartey George says Disunity between Rawlings and Mills should be traced to Konadu

A member of the Government Communication team, Samuel Nartey George, has said that the disunity between the NDC founder, Jerry John Rawlings, and President John Evans Atta Mills should be traced to former first lady, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings.

According to him, Mrs Rawlings rather has problems with President Mills contrary to the widely held perception of disagreement between the two party leaders.

“I can tell you confidently that Mr. Rawlings has no problems with the President [Mills],” he said. “If anybody has a problem with the President then I believe it is Mr. Rawlings’ wife and her problem is simply that she lost an election when she wanted to be the President.”

The Government Communication Team member was contributing on the subject of the rift between former President Rawlings and his protege President Mills on Citi FM’s news and current affairs program, The Big Issue.

Mr. Nartey George cautioned that anyone working against the NDC in its bid to retain power will equally suffer the consequences.

“The NDC is the only vehicle that we have and all those who say they founded it or they came and joined it or will now come and join must bear in mind that all our actions must inure to the benefit of the NDC,” he said.

“Anyone, who chooses for his or her own parochial interest wants to stand aloft and push the NDC into opposition does that to their own detriment.”

Source Citifmonline Ghana

http://spyghana.com/ghana-general-news/politics/samuel-nartey-george-disunity-between-rawlings-and-mills-should-be-traced-to-konadu/

Atta Mills’ victory was rigged – Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings

The wife of the founder of the National Democratic Congress Mrs. Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings has accused the party of rigging the re election of President John Evans Atta Mills as the candidate for the 2012 elections.

During NDC’s congress last year, Konadu Rawlings failed to secure the top position of the party by accuring 3.01 percent of the total delegate votes whilst the incumbent President Mills secured the remainig 96.09 percent.

Speaking to students of University of Ghana’s Akuafo hall on Saturday, Mrs Rawlings attributed her defeat to the rigging of elections by party officials.

She was quoted as saying :

Even though we went to Sunyani, I didn’t want to break up the party so there a lot of things I kept quiet about. People who were not delegates were voting as delegates and I know all the delegates. More than a thousand or something were not delegates.

They voted so I let it be because if I want to deal with it means I should take the whole bunch to court. But I just decided no it’s not worth it. Let them steal it. If that makes them happy, let them steal it. But in my heart of hearts I feel sorry for the party I belong to because it was like cracking the party in the middle and for it was sad

http://spyghana.com/ghana-general-news/politics/atta-mills-victory-was-rigged-nana-konadu-agyeman-rawlings/

Where Does Political Corruption Start In Ghana?
RECOUNTING MY OWN EXPERIENCES TO PAINT A GROTESQUE PICTURE
BY OTCHERE DARKO

The purpose of this write-up is to draw the attention of Ghanaians to some major drawbacks within the ideas, thinking, motivation and configuration of parties in Ghana that seem to account for the failures of our current two dominant parties, in particular, and in the entire party system in Ghana, in general. This write up is based on actualities, and not on academic or research work. It is fished out of pieces of personal encounters. For obvious reasons, names of parties, of people and of places have been left out wilfully. Nonetheless, the write up attempts to bring out the weaknesses in Ghana’s political party system that need to be addressed, if Ghana and Ghanaians are to derive positive results from our current democratic dispensation. The piece does not seek to endorse any particular political ideology or philosophy. It merely says what is wrong with Ghanaians when it comes to joining and participating in parties, and no particular party is mentioned or implicitly targeted for exposure.

ONE COMMON CHARACTERISTIC OF THE GHANAIAN PARTY SYSTEM IS THAT WHEN IT COMES TO JOINING OR SUPPORTING PARTIES, GHANAIANS THINK ABOUT WHAT THEY, AS INDIVIDUALS, HOPE TO GET FROM THE PARTY AND NOT ABOUT WHAT THEY WANT TO DO FOR THE PARTY OR THE COUNTRY.
I have personally, in the past [but not now], been associated with a defunct political party and did occupy one of the top local party executive positions before one of the coups in the country and the political persecutions, hypocrisies and sycophancies that followed from it forced me to quit politics, [forever or for a time being, at least]. My experiences then, combined with what I see to be happening now, fully back the assertion above that Ghanaians join and support parties because of what they hope to get from the parties at the time they join them, or from the nation, if their parties gain power in some future, but not because of what they want to do for the parties or for their country. When people hold this kind of motivation, they naturally become susceptible to bribery and corruption to achieve their personal agenda.
As a concrete proof of this assertion, I recount here an experience I had in one of our recent “post-coups” Ghanaian elections. I had decided to throw my weight behind what I saw as the least of the “two evil-parties” in the constituency where I live now in order to stop the worse of the “two evil-parties” from taking over our newly created constituency. Of course, I was acting on the weight of pleas from a friend who was a member of this least of the “two evil-parties”. Using my own money, vehicle and public address system,[b] I mounted an intensive one-man campaign that helped immensely to record victory in my constituency for the candidate of the least of the “two evil-parties”. Then, after that, half of the youth and adults in that party that I campaigned for came to my house at different times to ask for all forms of financial consideration, simply because the party I campaigned for had won the elections and so I needed to do something for them, despite the fact that I had nothing to gain personally from what I did which I fully financed from my own pocket and not from their party’s coffers and, also, despite the fact that I did not personally have any form of relationship or acquaintance with the MP who won before I decided to throw my weight behind him. More specifically, two members of that party asked me after the elections to use my name to secure contracts for them in the constituency, because they believed that what I did entitled me to bid for contracts from the party at the constituency level. When I said I hated doing such a thing and would not do it, the two got angry with me, as if they believed that I was one of the “big men” in their party and, accordingly, they swore never to vote for the said [unnamed] party in the said [unnamed] constituency again.[/b] *Readers, just look at this kind of selfishness that takes place at the very grass-root of the party system! And yet we complain when the politicians steal or sell of the nation to outsiders for personal considerations. My experience recounted here should certainly remind readers about several other replications of this behaviour in recent youth actions of some parties in many parts of the country.

A SECOND CHARACTERISTIC OF THE GHANAIAN PARTY SYSTEM IS THAT THE PARTIES THEMSELVES, OUT OF NAIVETY OR OUT OF PURPOSEFUL MACHINATION, ENCOURAGE DONORS WHO DONATE TO THEIR COFFERS TO STATE WHAT THEY WANT FROM THE PARTIES’ GOVERNMENT IF THEY WIN ELECTIONS IN THE FUTURE.
This is as if to say people must demand something in return for the donations they make towards party’s finances. I am telling readers this statement as a fact which I am immediately going to support with circumstantial evidence. In one of the recent elections in “post-coups” Ghana, I decided to go the “constituency of my birth”, [as opposed to the constituency where I currently live], to see the political climate and development there. I visited a man with whom I was actively doing politics in the past in “the constituency of my birth” before “the dark days of Ghana’s democracy” commenced. I decided to donate a small amount of money to their party as an unsolicited gesture of goodwill. *[b]Two things happened that shocked me profoundly. This one-time party associate of mine, and now one of the “gurus” at constituency, regional and national levels of one of the current parties in Ghana, first asked me what I wanted from their party in return for my donation, if they won an election that was then impending. I answered that I wanted nothing. He replied that it was unusual now for a person to make unsolicited donation without demanding anything in return. The second “shocker” was that his party did not accept donations in cheques. He said he had been directed by the party’s constituency leader that donations had to be “in cash” and not “in cheques”. The possibility of cheques bouncing was not on a reason he gave. [/b]I leave readers to make their own guess and draw their own conclusion from this second “shocker” and tally it with their conclusion from the first “shocker” narrated in this paragraph.

A THIRD CHARACTERISTIC OF THE PARTY SYSTEM IN GHANA IS THAT GHANAIAN PARTIES LACK THE MECHANISMS BY WHICH THEY CAN INSTIL DISCIPLINE AMONG THEIR MEMBERS WHO WIN ELECTIONS AND BECOME PRESIDENT, VICE PRESIDENT, MINISTERS, MP’s AND OTHER POLITICAL PUBLIC OFFICE HOLDERS.
After a party in Ghana has become victorious in general elections, the party itself then becomes subordinate to the elected members and their appointees. There appears to be no effective mechanism that compels the President and members of his Executive or Members of Parliament to tow the party line, or stick to the party’s policies and election manifesto or be instructed by the party’s Chairman or Executive. This means that, after a party has won elections in Ghana and assumed the reins of political leadership in the country, the party’s relationship with its elected members’ reverses from one of “master and servant relationship” to one of “the old servants”, [formerly the elected members], becoming “the new masters” and its corollary of “the old masters”, [formerly the party executives], sinking to the position of “the new servants”. This “upside-down” and “downside-up” situation of post-election partisan development in Ghana is one main reason why after elections elected members soon become distant, arrogant, selfish and act pursuant to their personal interests mainly, rather than pursuing the party’s policies and agenda. In most other political party systems, whether one is looking at China or at America, the party, after a general election, continues to remain on top of its members, ordinary, or elected, or members subsequently appointed to public offices and continues to guide and control their actions to ensure that they stay in tune with the party’s policies and agenda. Here in Ghana, after being elected into office, the President and his Ministers do what they like, with their party virtually doing nothing to bring them into line or get them to heed public concerns. For the party system of democracy to work and ensure efficiency and moral probity however, parties must be on top of elected members and have in place, within them, mechanisms that allow the parties to constantly guide, control and discipline elected members, instead of waiting for the end of the terms of office of such public officials before the electorate decide their fates and those of the parties. Democracy, whether it is based on a one-party system or on a multi-party system, revolves around effective party mechanism. Accordingly, if the “party mechanism” of a governing party fails to exercise effective control over members of the Nation’s Executive and the Legislature who are elected on the party’s ticket, then that party has failed in its supportive role towards the Nation’s democratic dispensation. After all, it is parties that voters first consider when they are casting their votes, before they give consideration to candidates and their personality variables that come into play in voters’ range of preferences.

CONCLUSION:
[b]If Ghanaians and the Nation want to achieve the best from our multi-party democracy, then party members, from the grass-root level that forms the starting point in the stepladder of political corruption, have to be targeted, “monetarily” disciplined and modelled to play more politically constructive and facilitating roles that turn them away from politically degrading “money-harvesting” activities and gear them towards the pursuit of progressive party and national endeavours. This, among others, means party members, especially those at the grass-roots, have to be stopped from making personal demands on their parties and on politicians and should, instead, be guided to find ways to make their individual personal positive contributions towards both their party and the nation, bearing in mind that the more they “screw” their politicians, the more they encourage them, the politicians, to steal from the State to recoup such “losses” to them from grass-root “screwing”. Similarly, political parties should not allow themselves to be turned into “gold mines”; nor should they allow party and national election-times to become “harvesting seasons” for voters in their parties and elsewhere. Parties need to set the tone of, and obligation towards, acceptable party and national moral standards by installing and insisting on moral codes within their establishments. Again, parties, through their executives, must always place themselves above all party members including those elected to positions of State power, such as the President, his Vice and other members of the Executive, as well as those of the Legislature; and should not allow such members to be above party-disciplinary machineries.[/b]

CERTAINLY, GHANAIANS NEED A NEW POLITICAL AND PARTISAN MENTALITY THAT CORRELATES OUR NATIONAL DEMOCRACY AND VALUES AND PAVES THE WAY FOR GHANAIANS, IRRESPECTIVE OF THEIR PARTY IDEOLOGY, TO PUT NATIONAL INTERESTS FIRST IN ALL THINGS THEY DO TO ENSURE THAT THIS COUNTRY CAN TAKE ITS RIGHTFUL PLACE AMONG THE FAMILY OF TOMORROW’S SUCCESSFUL NATIONS OF THE WORLD.

SOURCE: OTCHERE DARKO.
[Posted on 7th August 2010]

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=187651

ITbomb: The Big G
When are we seeing the Google Laptop?

Laptop?

Do you mean tablet?

By my pen, gun we won June 4; I made Rawlings a ceremonial head-Boakye Djan
By Myjoyonline


The rift between ex-president John Rawlings and his former confidante Osahene Boakye Djan appears to be elongating with both men marking the controversial June 4 uprising in their own unique ways.

[b]Whilst ex-president John Rawlings was grudgingly lighting the perpetual flame and damning government functionaries for corruption, to mark the day, Boakye Djan in a rather uncharacteristic fashion addressed followers on the tenets of June 4, his role and Rawlings' June 4 benefits.

The June 4 Uprising which was led by junior army officers in 1979 toppled the Supreme Military Council II under FWK Akuffo and undertook what they referred to as the house cleaning exercise.

Flt Lt John Rawlings who was then in prison for leading an abortive May 15 coup was released and made chairman of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council which ruled for nearly three months and handed over power to a democratically elected government led by Hilla Limann of the PNP.

In 1981 Flt Lt Rawlings toppled the PNP government and formed the Provisional National Defence Council- an action which many architects of June 4 consider as a betrayal of trust.

The June 4 uprising was supposed to be the last military intervention in the country.

The 81 coup brought about an unending animosity between Flt Lt Rawlings on one hand, and Rtd Major Boakye Djan, Kweku Baako Jnr and other key participants of June 4 on another.

33 years after the incident, during which Flt Lt John Rawlings won two elections in 1992 and 1996, the simmering tension between the June 4 architects does not appear to be ending anytime soon.[/b]

Boakye Djan who is the NDC Parliamentary candidate for Gyaman North at a rally said Mr Rawlings was merely a ceremonial head of June 4.

“If there was a single event that won June 4 that day it was my pen and my gun that won it.

“…I made Rawlings the .. Head of State and a chairman and I became the official spokesman. So I was official spokesman. So I was totally in charge.

He said the much touted slogan of probity and accountability which has been associated to Mr Rawlings was actually crafted by him.

He dared Mr Rawlings to leave the NDC saying he will return just like the Reform Party as well as the DFP did.


http://www.modernghana.com/news/399534/1/by-my-pen-gun-we-won-june-4-i-made-rawlings-a-cere.html

Woyome Arrested Again! It;s A Joke – NPP
By Daily Guide

The trial of Alfred Agbesi Woyome, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) financier, over the GH¢51.28million fraud perpetrated against the state in a judgment debt saga, yesterday took a dramatic twist when the state entered a nolle prosequi, which meant the state was unwilling to prosecute the case.

However, Mr Woyome was stunned when he was re-arrested and charged with willfully causing financial loss to the state to tune of GH¢51.28million and defrauding by false pretences.

Woyome, according to the prosecutor, made fraudulent misrepresentation to the state when he had no contract with the Ghana government.

He was standing trial with three other persons who were also discharged but were not re-arrested alongside the NDC financier.

Woyome has denied any wrongdoing and is on a GH¢20million bail with three sureties, but this time, he would not report to the police twice a week as was the case under the previous bail conditions.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) however was not amused by the legal gymnastics being played by Government and its leading members including Director of Communications Nana Akomea said the latest development was only a joke and a ploy to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians.

Earlier, Cynthia Lamptey, the state attorney, who was supposed to begin the trial yesterday as ordered by the court, informed the Fast Track High Court Financial Division hearing the case that she was entering a nolle prosequi on the matter after informing the court she had taken a statement from Woyome.

Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh, a Chief State Attorney, his wife Gifty Nerquaye-Tetteh and Paul Asimenu, Legal Director at the Ministry of Finance, who were standing trial with Woyome, were consequently let off the hook by the Judge, Justice John Ajet-Nassan, in compliance with the state counsel's wishes.

Yoni Kulendi, counsel for Paul Asimenu, did not seem very convinced about the latest development and said defence counsel should have been served notice; but that did not happen and wondered what the state wanted to do. But the trial judge said he could not read the mind of the state.

However, Woyome remained uneasy even when his colleagues had left the court premises and was glued to his seat, making his supporters to wait around the court in the hope that the state would not bring any further action against their hero.

Their suspicions were confirmed when a few minutes later, the state brought fresh charges against Woyome.

Robertson Kpatsa prayed for bail for his client and it was consequently granted.

Ms Lamptey, who presented the facts of the case to the court, traced the genesis of the fraud to 2005.

She said in January 2005, the Government of Ghana invited bids for the rehabilitation of the Ohene Djan Sports Stadium in Accra and Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi as well as two stadia at Sekondi/Takoradi and Tamale.

She said at the end of the bidding process, a number of companies were shortlisted and invited to submit their proposals and among these companies were M-Powapak Gmb/Vamed Engineering & Co.

According to her, at the end of the evaluation process, the Finance and Evaluation Committee declared M-Powapak/Vamed as the most responsive and recommended them to the Central Tender Review Board but said before the tender could be received, the Government terminated the process.

The state attorney noted that in the course of the tender process, Vamed Engineering had assigned its right and responsibilities to Waterville Holdings (BVI) Ltd, adding that after the process, Waterville protested against the termination.

She said Waterville got the Government to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with it to commence the rehabilitation of Accra and El-Wak stadia and noted that the MoU was signed on November 30, 2005 and it required Waterville to engineer the fund for the project on behalf of Government of Ghana from the Bank of Austria Creditanstalk AG.

Furthermore, she stated that the money was supposed to be guaranteed by the World Bank's Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and explained that Waterville was also supposed to arrange bridge financing.

In addition, she said subsequent to the MoU, Waterville engaged M-Powapak, led by Woyome, to provide financial engineering services in respect of the projects and a formal contract for the rehabilitation for the Accra and El-Wak stadia was entered between the Government of Ghana and Waterville Holdings on April 26, 2006.

However, she said, even before the contract could be effective, it was terminated by the government due to the inability of Waterville to fund the project, among others, as contained in the MoU which formed a condition precedent to the contract.

Explaining further, the state attorney observed that Waterville initially protested the termination but eventually accepted the termination and proceeded to claim money and were paid a substantial amount which was acknowledged by Woyome in a termination agreement dated November 25, 2006, bringing the relationship between them to an end.

Ms Lamptey said the accused person, after receiving the money under financial engineering services, took advantage of the change in government and falsely represented to Government officials that the government owed him money for the contract with Waterville.

Woyome, the state attorney noted, had no contract with the government and added that Woyome claimed that as part of financial engineering, he managed to arrange a total of €1,106,407,587 for the government of Ghana through the Bank of Austria Creditanstalk, out of which he claimed he was to be paid 2% as fees.

Explaining further, she said investigations revealed that no such funds were made available for the benefit of the country from Bank Austria as claimed by Woyome and said investigations also revealed that he did not have any contract with government to provide any services.

She observed that the only arrangement with financial engineering Woyome had was with Waterville which services had been fully paid for and acknowledged by him in a termination agreement.

Ms Lamptey stated that based on these fraudulent misrepresentations, Woyome succeeded in getting the government to pay him an amount of GH¢51 283,480.59, thereby willfully and fraudulently causing financial loss to the state.

The case has been adjourned to June 12, 2012.
By Fidelia Achama

http://www.modernghana.com/news/399781/1/woyome-arrested-again-its-a-joke-8211-npp.html

mens dept: Suprised that at last some of una dey talk sense.

If the PEOPLE were serious, they would have since staged a coup themselves, executing ALL the bad leaders, fake pastors, mallams, heads of industry, and many many more.

This has happened in all the other continents, among all the other races, except we, the BLACK folks.

Please substantiate or elaborate!

[size=14pt]How would the physically challenged access the station?[/size]

franco4christ: its only in Nigeria that such insults can be hurled at the President and the offender goes scotfree.If it is in developed countries, that guy is going to jail straight.may God help us in this country.

Really?

You have to read the comments on this page:

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/06/he_fell_asleep_during_presiden.html

e.g.

"I did not like Clinton's politics either, but at least he could speak publicly without a teleprompter.....as could Reagan. Obama cannot. An assumption is often made that a person capable of speaking eloquently in public must be an intellectual. Take away Obama's teleprompter and he'd sound like a bumbling idiot and no smarter than Bush.

As for Obama's ability to read.....that's great of you to hold him to such a high standard. However, understanding what one reads is what matters. And he obviously is clueless otherwise he would understand his policies and socialistic ideas have failed every time they've ever been tried. Again providing proof that he's certainly not an intellectual."

Bill Clinton caught dozing Martin Luther King Day celebration at the Convent Avenue Baptist Church in Harlem.

Chinese delegates doze off during a session of the National People's Congress in 2003.

Senator John McCain sleeps during Bush State of the Union Address.

Former British PM, Gordon Brown naps as he waits to address the United Nation Security Council in New York.

VP Dick Cheney sleeping while his boss (Bush) speaks.

Members of the House of Representatives, doze off during the plenary session in which Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi delivered a policy speech at the Parliament in Tokyo.