Private developer builds toilet on school compound

A private developer is encroaching on the land of the Ghana-Lebanon Islamic Secondary School, opposite the Odaw Railway Station near the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra.
The private developer is putting up structures to be used as a public bath and toilet on a portion of the land in front of the school, which is used as a playground by the school and community.
The Director of the school, Mr Ali Soualah, has therefore appealed to the Greater Accra Regional Minister and the Ghana Railways Authority to help stop the encroachment.
The Director made the appeal when the Daily Graphic visited the school to verify the truth of the allegations.
Mr Soualah stressed that if the said facility was allowed to progress it would disrupt academic work at the school and pose serious environmental concern to the community. The director said the problem had been reported to the Greater Accra Regional Minister and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, the Sub-metro director, Lands Commissioner and the Chief Engineer of the Ghana Railways Company.
He said an official delegation visited the site during the Easter holidays to stop the work but the developers continued to stockpile construction materials at the site in defiance of the order to stop work.
The structure which is at the foundation stage is being constructed on a Ghana Railway demarcated land and under an electric pylon.
When contacted the Station Manager of the Odaw Railways Station, Mr Reynolds Quansah, told the Daily Graphic that the Ghana Railways Authority had not released any portion of its land to any private developer.
Mr Quansah said when he was informed about the activity of the developers, he quickly contacted the police to prevent them from going ahead with the work.
When the police went there the workers on the site left and he was therefore surprised to see building materials on the site on Tuesday morning when he came to work.
“But the police have given me the assurance that they will monitor the place from time to time to prevent all illegal developers on the land, ” the station manager said.
Mr Quansah stated that by regulation, no development was allowed within 50 meters from the rail trucks and that the construction was a clear disregard of the law.
Asked whether he could identify the developers, Mr Quansah said he was aware of two young men who claimed to belong to the Korle We, and who were said to be the original owners of the land.
These young men, he said, had taken various sums of money from individuals and were selling portions of the Railways lands to them.
A young man who spoke to the Daily Graphic on condition of anonymity at the site confirmed the claim by the station manager that some chiefs from the Korle We released the portion of the land to some “cocaine boys” from Saharah for the construction of a public bath and toilet.
He added that, “if the minister or the Railways people allow this “cocaine boys” to come and operate this toilet and bath in front of the school it would negatively affect teaching and learning.”
The young man also claimed that the guys were a threat to the community and must not be allowed to do anything there.
“They will use the place as a toilet and bath but they will also be selling wee and cocaine,” he said.

Unilever rewards loyal wholesalers in southern sector

UNILEVER Ghana Limited has awarded its loyal wholesalers for the year 2008 from the southern sector of the country at an award presentation ceremony in Accra.
The grand prize of a brand new KIA PICANTO truck, with registration number GT 3557-09 went to Mr Yaw Asante of Asante and Asante Limited in Accra.
Earlier, Mr Asante had received a return ticket to Dubai or any country of his choice, 100 roofing sheets and GH¢1,500 spending money.
Other loyal wholesalers who performed remarkably in the year under review received various items such as pressing irons, television sets, bags of cement, gas burners, roofing sheets, deep freezers, air conditioners, as well as cash prizes.
Some of the award winners included the Rock of Life, Baba Goat, Penny Mart, Opak Ventures, My Lord My Lord, Aunty Esi Enterprise and Patty B Enterprise.
The ceremony was also used to launch the 2009 Unilever Wholesales’ scheme, dubbed, ‘U n I’ together we succeed.”
The Officer in charge of the Unilever wholesales’ scheme, Ms Nora Ghartey, explained that the purpose of the scheme was to build a stronger bond of friendship and relationship with the wholesalers.
“Our intention is to improve the quality of service of the wholesaler in order to ensure sustained profitability for both the wholesalers and Unilever,” she stated.
Ms Ghartey also said the scheme was to improve product availability and visibility for selected products of the company.
She told the wholesalers that while the scheme ran for three months last year, it would run for six months, from May to October this year.
To achieve efficiency in the scheme, the number of participating wholesalers’ had been reduced from over 800 to 600.
The Head of Customer Marketing, Mr Michael Boafo, said the world economic downturn and its effect on their wholesalers necessitated that the company lent a helping hand to them.
Mr Boafo said feedback from last year’s scheme informed the company to come out with some improvement in the scheme.
“To support you we will run several promotions and continuously provide advertising support to generate the required demand for our products on the market,” he stressed.
Present at the award ceremony were some key distributors of the company and the Customer Development Director, Mr Kwaku Boateng.

MDPI holds workshop on management

THE Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI) has organised a 10-day office management and administration course for three organisations in Accra.
The participants were drawn from the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), the Volta River Authority (VRA) and the Customary Lands Secretariat at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.
They were taken through records management, effective communication skills, report writing, office management and administration, among others.
The Director of MDPI, Mr T. K. A. Bibilazu, urged them not to become bosses in their offices just after attending the course.
Rather, they should be agents of positive change in the work they did and be prepared to share the new skills and knowledge they had acquired with their colleagues.
“The result of this workshop must be seen in the work you do in the office and the way you handle your clients,” he stressed.
He later told the Daily Graphic that the purpose of the course was to equip participants to perform better at their workplaces to increase productivity.
Mr Bibilazu appealed to the government to help improve infrastructure in the institute in order for it to compete effectively with other training institutions in the country.
A training consultant of the MDPI and chairman for the event, Mr Michael Kosi, explained the importance and relevance of some of the subjects and asked the participants to read the various subject areas further.
For his part, the Course Prefect, Nana Okyempem Adu VII, thanked the resource persons for the skills and knowledge they had imparted to participants and promised that they would perform better at their workplaces.

65 graduate from Institute of Accountancy

THE Director of Finance at the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare, Alhaji Adam Sadiq, has challenged accountants to effectively apply the knowledge they acquire in school to achieve the needed results in their work.
He said they should exhibit a high sense of professionalism in any work they found themselves in to justify the investment made in their training.
Alhaji Sadiq said this at the weekend during a ceremony of the Institute of Accountancy Training, where 65 students graduated in Diploma in Public Finance and Accountancy, Diploma in Public Administration and Diploma in Business Studies.
Alhaji Sadiq was elated about the school’s contribution to the manpower needs of the civil service as most of their students occupied high positions in the public and private sector.
He, however, noted with regret the corrupt practices of some public office holders which was contained in the Auditor Generals and the Public Accounts Committee report, and asked the graduands not to copy such practices by using the ethics and skills they had acquired to promote a corrupt free nation and good governance.
Alhaji Sadiq also commended the efforts of management and staff of the institute for supporting government to finance tertiary education in the country by generating internal capital through consultancy and customised training programmes.
The Principal of the Institute, Mr Theophilus Hanson, said efforts were being put in place by the management and council to get the institute affiliated to the University of Ghana to make it very competitive.
Mr Hanson announced that the management had acquired exemptions for some of their professional programmes at the foundation stage and level one for their students.
That was to give the students international recognition he noted and said “as a result, lecturers will adopt a more holistic and professional approach to the teaching in the institute” he said.
The Principal, therefore challenged the students to also adopt new attitude towards learning to justify the exemptions they had in the various subjects. “These exemptions are not meant for your glorification, it is for you to perform better.”
He again said that, “you must exhibit the need for the exemption with your performance in the subjects so that the authorities will see the need for the exemption.”
The chairman for the ceremony, Mr Asamoah Duodu, advised the students that the best way they could market the institute was to offer their best in their work places.
Present at the ceremony, were pupils from the Ledzokuku State College.

Women in film donates to Queen of Peace School

THE Women in Film and Television International Ghana (WIFT) with support from the EPP Books Limited have donated a quantity of books to the Queen of Peace Roman Catholic School in Accra.
WIFT is a global network of women in film and television worldwide with over 10,000 members dedicated to advancing the professional development of women working in the areas of film, video, and other screen based media.
The donation formed part of the WIFT’s- nurturing creativity through reading project supported by the EPP books.
It is also an initiative that seeks to inculcate into children the habit of reading, improve their reading skills and also develop their self-confidence and inner drive.
The project will have female stars in both television and film read to children in under privileged schools in the country.
The Queen of Peace School is the first school to benefit from this initiative in the country.
Receiving the books, the headmistress of the school, Mrs Mary Wonkyi, thanked the leadership of the WIFT and gave a promise that the books would be put to good use by the children.
Mrs Wonkyi called on other benevolent organisations to come to the aid of the school and provide them with books for their library.
Some of the executive present read some of the books to the hearing of the children.
The Executive President of the WIFT, Mrs Juliet Asante, the Vice-President and PR, Mrs Akorfa Edjeani Asiedu, the Programmes Director, Dzifa Gomashie and Esi Arhin the Secretary were present at the ceremony.

Nungua Residents cry for good roads

RESIDENTS of Nungua have called on the department of feeder roads to work on the roads in the community to facilitate easy movement.
The Teshie-Nungua road, a route that most people from Sakumono, Ashaiman, Tema and their environs use to their various destinations within Accra, is in a very bad state.
The road is dotted with potholes right from the end of the dual carriage at the Teshie end of the road to Tema and Ashaiman and makes vehicular movement on the road difficult.
In the early hours of the day, it could take one over 30 minutes to drive through the Nungua Town alone.
When the Daily Graphic visited the area at about 6:30a.m. last Friday, there was heavy vehicular traffic on the road as residents and other road users, as usual were complaining about the slow nature of the traffic.
Mr Kwaku Antwi, a trader resident at Lashibi, said he always had to wake up as early as 4:00 a.m. with his family in order to leave the house early before getting trapped in the heavy traffic.
He said but for the intervention of the police who directed traffic at the various intersections on the road, the situation would not be different from the traffic situation on other major roads in the city.
“The Spintex road used to be an alternative route for most of us but this has also become bad as the area has developed so fast within the last few years thus attracting a lot of vehicular traffic.”
He added, “Whenever I see a contractor patching the roads, bit by bit, I ask myself if the authorities can’t use the money to construct the road at once; they just waste the money.”
Some others the Daily Graphic spoke to expressed the view that previous Members of Parliament had not helped the situation in any way hence the constant changing of MPs during elections.
They appealed to the current MP to do well to articulate the concerns of the people of his constituency as the road particularly in front of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) and others did not befit a town in the national capital.

Methodist varsity launches two books

THE Methodist University College, Ghana (MUCG) has launched two books written by the Very Rev. Dr Richard Foli.
The books, “Ghana Methodism Today”, touches on various issues of the Methodist Church from its leadership to the growth of the church while the second book, “Wesleyan Heritage in Ghana” also takes a look at the vision of the past leaders of the church from 1960 to date.
Reviewing the two books, the Principal of the MUCG, the Very Rev. Professor S K Adjepong said, “Wesleyan Heritage” is a compilation of addresses from Ghanaian heads of the Methodist Church to the representative session of the Methodist conference.
According to Rev. Prof. Adjepong, the first book “Wesleyan Heritage” is an analysis of the leadership style of the past leaders of the church and the addresses they delivered during their term of office.
He said the Methodist Church as seen today, had gone through a lot of hardships, which had sustained the spirit of the Methodist Church over the years.
The book also addresses issues pertaining to the doctrines of the church as handed over by its founding fathers.
The nine heads mentioned in the book are Rev. Dr Francis Grant (1960-1966), Rev. T Wallace Koomson (1966-1973), Rev. C. K. Yamoah (1973-1977), Rev. Awotwi Pratt (1977-1979) and Rev. Samuel B Essamuah (1979-1984).
The others are Rev. Dr J. J. A. Stephens (1984- 1990), Rev. K. A. Dukro (1990-1997), Rev. Dr Samuel Asante Antwi (1997-2003) and Rev. Dr Robert Aboagye Mensah (2003-2009).
The second book, “Ghana Methodism Today,” is a three part book and touches on the root of the church, and the nature of the early church.
With statistics, the book also analyses the growth of the Methodist Church from her early days till now.
The book attempts to look into the future of the church and the challenges it is likely to face.
The author of the books Rev. Dr Richard Foli, expressed his appreciation to the principal of the MUCG for the opportunity to write the books.
“To me it is an honour to write these books, ” he said.
Rev. Foli called on the present generation, particularly the youth of the church to preserve the history of the church by knowing its past.
Launching the books, a member of the MUCG board, Mr Tim Acquah Hayford, recounted some of the remarkable achievements of the early leaders of the church.
He also added his voice to the call on the youth of the church not to miss on the history of the church. The first copy of the books went for GH¢ 500.
Present at the launch were the Registrar of the university who was also chairman for the occasion, Justice Nii Ayitey and some ministers of the Methodist Church.