GRi Press Review

Daily Graphic

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?The Sierra Leone Crises .......ECOMOG dares Rebels ? is the Lead story in the Graphic. The report says President Rawlings has warned rebels in Sierra Leone that if they push ECOMOG to the wall, the peace -keepers will push them out of the country.

?We have the capacity to deal decisively with them, if they take any chances this time, they will be pushed out of the country?, cautioned Rawlings at the Kotoka International Airport yesterday where he held a joint news conference with the visiting Sierra Leonean Head of State, Amhad Tejan Kabbah.

The report says he urged the rebel commanders to obey the cease -fire call by their leader, Forday Sankoh. Should anyone disobey him the consequence will be swift and decisive?

President Rawlings also promised that Ghana will do all she can to serve as a catalyst to the peace effort. He said ?A lot of lessons have been learnt from the past military encounters? adding that he was hopeful that Forday Sankoh who has ordered a temporary cease-fire within 72 hours from Wednesday will supplement peace efforts being made by President Tejan Kabbah.

Meanwhile Sankoh is reported as having been sentenced to death for treason. President Kabbah has said the rebel leader could either be freed on an appeal he filed or benefit from a presidential clemency depending on the circumstances. Asked whether he regretted the execution of 25 other people convicted of treason, President Kabbah replied that he is convinced that he did the right thing.

?Government won?t Rescue any Wrong Doer? Is another story on the front page of the Graphic.

The report has it that Mr. James Victor Gbeho, Ghana?s Minister of Foreign Affairs, says government will not use any funds to transport into the country Ghanaians sentenced to jail in foreign countries for hard drug offences to enable them serve their jail- terms at home.

According to the report, Mr. Gbeho?s remarks were prompted by sentiments raised by some members of the Minority in parliament who wanted to know if it was possible to transfer Ghanaian prisoners convicted for drug offences in other countries to local prisons. Claiming this is to emulate what the U.S and Britain do with their prisoners serving sentences abroad.

The Minister is however reported to have disagreed stating that conditions in developing countries are different from developed countries. He is also reported to have said that the petitions received from prisoners serving jail terms in Thailand for example had been forwarded to the Ministry of Interior under whose jurisdiction the Ghana Prisons Service as well as the Narcotics Control Board falls for it?s comments.

Among other things Mr. Gbeho was asked what the Ministry is doing to unravel the mystery surrounding the Gruesome murder of Captain Abu Parker in Miami, U.S on July 16,1997.

He answered the enquiry by saying that the ship on which the captain was travelling was involved in drug trafficking, a fact allegedly unknown to the deceased. The Captain died in an ensuing shoot-out but Mr. Gbeho assured the members that Ghana?s mission in Washington is awaiting the outcome of an investigation and will submit a full report to parliament once it has been received.

Finally the Graphic reports that Mr. Robin Cook; the British Foreign Secretary arrived in the country yesterday to begin a two-day symbolic visit.

Mr. Cook, was expected to be joined by Mr. Hubert Vedrine, the French Foreign Minister, to begin a landmark visit which includes a dinner hosted by Ghana?s Foreign Minister, Mr. Victor Gbeho and a call on President J.J Rawlings today.

This is supposedly the first time Foreign Ministers from Britain and France have paid a joint visit to an African country; something propounded to be ?a significant step in the commitment of the two governments to work together on issues affecting the African continent.

The visit follows the joint declaration and Co-operation in Africa agreed upon by Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Jacques Chirac at the British -French summit in St. Malo, in December last year.

The two dignitaries are expected to discuss issues related to the crises in Sierra Leone, Nigeria?s transition to democracy and the debt crises.

People and Places

****************** The P and P a Tabloid, carries a hilarious yet sad account of a bank lady whose love for Charles Fosu?s (Daddy Lumba) song ?Aben Wo Ha? has landed her in big trouble.

Headlined ?ABEN WO HA, gets Bank lady IN Big Trouble? the story has it that a light skinned well-married lady identified only as sister Ernestina who works with a top international commercial bank in Accra, love for the song made the discovery of her extra love nest easy.

According to the P and P, Sister Ernerstina whose husband is a legal officer vanished from her matrimonial home only days after her husband left for a conference in a South African country. She is reported as having left her two children in the care of their 13 year old house-help and left a note explaining that she was attending the funeral of a close buddy.

The husband who as it were took the ?story with a pinch of salt? went to her work place and was informed by a surprised staff that there was no funeral.

The story continues that the lawyer went upon a tip off to a joint at Adenta in Accra where his enquiries at a bar yielded fruit. One waitress is reported to have said, ? I know the lady who always comes with her husband and requests that we play her favourite tune Aben Wo Ha. She lives in the next flat.?

The real husband described as being shocked as well as infuriated went to the said apartment and asked if they knew a woman who fitted the tall light skinned description. ?Yes? was the reply upon which they led the fuming husband to a door on which they beat a heavy tattoo all the time shouting ?Sister Aben Wo Ha?.

The P and P say Sister Ernestina appeared at the door with only a huge towel around her torso. Her scream of surprise brought her lover, who the lawyer husband recognised as one of the departmental managers of the bank, to the door.

The incensed husband is said to have dragged his wife downstairs to his car with only the towel still around her. The report continues that he drove her straight to her family house to lodge a complaint. The paper promises to update the story in later editions.

The Crusading Guide

******************** The Battle For Succession to the Golden Stool Intensifies.... Who Becomes Asantehene? is the lead story in the edition of the Crusading Guide. The story says the death and burial arrangements of Otumfuo Opoku Ware having been settled the Ashanti nation now turns it?s energies to finding the 16th occupant of the golden stool.

The paper states that, though it might seem hasty and disrespectful to the memory of the late King, the fact is that the process of choosing a new Asantehene has to follow a very strict time table that requires that a new Asantehene is enstooled within forty days of the death of the reigning one.

Highly placed sources at the Manhyia palace have indicated that unlike the smooth and unanimous choice of Otumfou Ware the second to succeed his uncle Otumfuo Osei Agyemang Prempeh the second in 1970, things are being up to a hotly contested battle this time round.

The Crusading Guide says according to their grapevine there are as many as seven eligible candidates jostling for the position. It adds that the successor will be announced only after a long series of nominations and deliberations have been made by the Kingmakers of Ashanti.

The paper concludes that most of the current paramount chiefs are all educated. It predicts that if the recent trend of giving due academic consideration and professional experience is to be taken as a guide, the odds are that the next Asantehene will neither be the best known or the one inside the track.

The nomination might fall on a quiet highly qualified medical doctor who sojourned long in the diaspora in order to prepare himself for the onerous task of leading a people deeply steeped in their traditions and customs into technological modernism of the 21st century.

The Graphic Showbiz

****************** One of Ghana?s most read entertainment newspaper reports that Daddy Lumba?s latest hit, Aben Wo Ha ? is making major sales.

The paper has it that an Accra taxi driver?s narration of how he came to buy a copy of the cassette speaks volumes about people?s morbid affection for the song. According to the ?cabbie? three men hired, his taxi for six hours in the middle of February .He claimed that the moment they took off they asked him if he had Lumba?s song.

When he replied in the negative, the three men are reported to have threatened to get down to find another car with the cassette. According to the report he pleaded with them to allow him, buy one. This was said to have satisfied them and he says ?At the end of it all I made big money. Now I play Aben Wo Ha everyday in my car.?

The cassette is said to have hit an all time level in London. All high life discs in the British Capital are alleged to sell for ?10 per copy, but ?Aben Wo Ha? costs ?30.

Meanwhile, the management of Despite Music Productions, distributors of Daddy Lumba?s hit album are styled as having presented a quantity of compact discs of the album to the victorious Black Satellites team and their Nigerian counter parts Flying Eagles.

The tune became the unofficial song of the Ghanaian team the Satellites at the just ended Under-20 African Cup Tournament held in Accra.

The Graphic Show biz also reports that the Miss Lux Universe pageant that has already been postponed once because the public claimed they were undecided, about who deserved it?s nomination, will be held at an Accra venue tomorrow.

The report says the winner of the competition, the first of it?s kind as a joint pageant between Lux Beauty Pageant and Miss Universe, will pick up two tickets ?a Ghana Airways ticket to the U.S.A and an American Airlines ticket to participate in the 48th Miss Universe pageant to be held in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Guide

*********** ?Surprise! Surprise from U.S.A. Rawlings Owns Private Plane? the fall out of President Rawling?s visit to the U.SA. is a revealation that he owns a 10- seater private jet. The Guide newspaper, which filed the report, says the jet has been long purchased and that Steve Wonder, the blind American singer once piloted it with the President.

The revealation are said to have been made when President Bill Clinton asked the Ghanaian President about a rumour that Steve Wonder, had flown his plane. To everyone?s amazement, President Rawlings confessed it was true and reportedly proceeded to give an account of how he only had to tell the blind star directions.

The former Airforce Pilot now President says, ?I would say right, left bank ? This sensitivity with his hands was unbelievable Rawlings is said to have marvelled to his US counterpart.

Steve Wonders flying ability is said to have been captured by a French TV crew on Board who are said to have been refused permission to show the footage because Wonder worries that people might not believe he really is blind.

The Ghanaian Times

****************** The Times reports that ?120 million cedis Poverty fund Vanishes from Bank.? The core of the story is that 120m cedis of the district Assembly common fund meant for poverty alleviation in the Tamale Municipality is said to have disappeared from the special account of the municipal assembly at the Agricultural development Bank. A source at the Assembly said the Common Fund and Poverty Alleviation files, as well as some office equipment, could not be located when the new Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Mohammed Alhassan took office on March 1.

Mr. Alhassan is reported to have rejected a verbal handing over by his predecessor, Alhaji A.Y.M.B Ibrahimah and insisted on handing over notes duly signed by both of them.

The assembly member for Salamba Electoral area, Mr. Bashars Alhassan Daballi, attributed such problems to the practice of nominating new chief executives, while the incumbents were still in power.

He alleged that most of the assembly?s funds were depleted between the periods of the nomination of the new chief executive and the day before the handing over.

Mr. Daballi called on the Regional Minister to institute a probe into all assemblies where new district chief executives have been appointed.