Date: December 11, 2005
(this article was freelanced by The Chronicle's social justice writer to the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix)
By Florence Gbolu
Born into a Presbyterian Ghanaian home, it never occurred to me that there was another way of worshiping God apart from Christianity and Ghana's other major religion, Islam.I had read in the Bible and been taught by my Sunday school teacher about the Jews, who were led to the Promised Land by their maker through prophets of God. However, I could not believe that there were people practicing Judaism in Ghana.Although I travel frequently to find stories on human-rights abuses, my trip this time was a pilgrimage to see what the Jewish community in Sefwi Wiawso, Ghana, was like.Sefwi WiawsoSefwi Wiawso is located in the western region of Ghana. The journey was close to seven hours from Accra, the nation's capital. I had heard stories and songs about the town, but was surprised when I arrived. Sefwi Wiawso, with its green vegetation, is really a nice place to be.We - volunteer Dave Maass, photographer Olivier Asselin and myself - had to lodge in a hotel for a day while we waited impatiently for the Sabbath, when we would meet the leader of the House of Israel (as the Jewish group calls itself).The next day, we met the chief of Sefwi Wiawso, which we usually do when visiting an area for a story. Sitting in the high-tech office in his mansion, he told us that many of the cultural practices of the area are no different from those of the Jews."We, the custodians of the land, see no problem (living) together with the Jewish here in Sefwi Wiawso," he said.Next, we were taken to Shalom Enterprises, the shop of Kofi Kwarteng. With him was David Ahenkorah, the "rabbi" of the community.Ghanaians are known for their hospitality, and the Jewish community was no different. We were welcomed into their community, and after a short chat we were taken to Kwarteng's home to meet his family.KulanuWe had learned how to get to the Sefwi Wiawso community through an organization called Kulanu, which means "all of us" in Hebrew. The organization describes itself as an encouragement and resource network for lost and dispersed Jewish communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America.Established 10 years ago, it has board members living in New York City and Silver Spring, Md., but has many other volunteers all over the world.Harriet Bograd has been the treasurer of the organization since 2001. She heard of Sefwi Wiawso when her daughter was looking for an opportunity to do volunteer work in Africa. She spoke with a family friend, Moshe Cotel (now Rabbi Moshe Cotel), who was involved with Kulanu, and he told her about the Jewish community in Sefwi Wiawso, which needed volunteers to teach Jewish subjects. Harriet and her husband spent a week visiting with their daughter and the community and helping out.The three of them helped the community open a bank account, set up bylaws, hold an organizational meeting and create a cooperative called the "Tiferet Israel Community Project."Kulanu donated $1,000 to the community to start an economic-development fund. Bograd said the community used the money to start a business making challah covers.Kulanu trained Ben Baidoo, a tailor, to make challah covers and to add embroidered collar and corners to kente cloth tallitot. They've also built and furnished a workshop for Baidoo that has two industrial-quality embroidery sewing machines.Kulanu has helped sell the challah covers through informal contacts, by selling at some events, through its newsletter and on its Web site, www.kulanuboutique.com.Bograd said they have taken in more than $22,100 in challah cover sales and have sent the community more than $19,800.Kulanu, she said, has sent a series of volunteers to live and help out in the community, as well as Jewish books and ritual objects.Shabbat 101After inquiring about my religion, Kwarteng and Ahenkorah took me through the rules of Sabbath.They told me that the Law of Moses reads, "Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy." They try their best to observe this by doing no work on that day.This meant I had to spend my weekend virtually doing nothing. I couldn't watch movies, listen to music, cook or write, among other things that I usually do on weekends as a Christian.To avoid any inconvenience, I had to learn and get used to things the way they were. As the adage goes, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."Kwarteng's house and the synagogue are on the same compound at New Adiembra, the part of Sefwi Wiawso where most of the Jews live. Like any other Ghanaian, his land includes a small food-crop farm and poultry.In the house, we played and chatted with Kwarteng's two sons. As the sun was setting, Kwarteng's older son, about 7 years of age, was preparing candles and said, "It's getting to Sabbath, I need to have my bath." After bathing, the little boy turned off the television set, which was playing "Tom and Jerry" cartoons.Soon, Kwarteng was home. He asked how we were getting on and left to also prepare for the Sabbath. Kwarteng was dressed in lace with a black flat cap on his head.Time to eatFriday night, it was time to dine, and at the table, I lit the candles for Sabbath. What I didn't know was that usually it is women who light candles on the Sab-bath. Kwarteng was pleased.We observed the Sabbath by reading the prayer book for festivals and weekdays led by Kwarteng. He read and explained for a while and then later opened a pack of Spanish sangria wine. We served ourselves, and he said a prayer before we drank.All of us at the table washed our hands in a big bowl of water before we ate our meal.We were served boiled plantains with a sauce made from cocoyam leaves (often known as palava sauce or kontonmire), and some big fried fish. Bread was also served.On Sabbath morning, we had a breakfast of bread, eggs and tea and headed for the synagogue, which was across the yard from Kwarteng's home.The synagogue is like any ordinary Ghanaian church. It is rectangular in shape and painted blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag.I sat with my friends among the males in the synagogue. Quickly, Ahenkorah asked me to sit where the women sat and explained to me that the males sit separately from the females.Another thing I observed during the service was that all the people in the synagogue could recite the Torah in English without reading from a book. Some people whom I noticed might not have a formal education, like the children below the age of 10, also recited the Torah fluently.Community originsAccording to tradition, before Christianity came to Africa, the people of Sefwi Wiawso were practicing traditions specific to Judaism. They rested from work on Saturdays, they circumcised their male children, and they observed the laws of kashrut. They would not eat certain types of fish and meat and performed prayers before slaughtering animals.The similarity of the practices to those of Judaism could not be coincidental, said Ahenkorah, who established Tiferet Synagogue at the House of Israel Community 14 years ago.Ahenkorah is 53 years old, and even though he has not been to a rabbinical school, he acts as the rabbi in the community. He came across Judaism about 20 years back, when he first met Aaron Ahenkyire, the founder of Judaism in Sefwi Wiawso."It was not something he discovered, but it was through a vision that he had," Ahenkorah said. "Aaron had a vision concerning the Lost Tribes of Israel; meaning Israel had 12 tribes, 10 of which was lost and was all over the world."He went on to say that the traditions of the ancestors of Sefwi Wiawso were the same as Jewish traditions from the Torah.Ahenkyire, according to Ahenkorah, once practiced Islam but stopped when he got his call to Judaism. Ahenkyire started by using the Hebrew Bible to preach to the masses and told them of the way the Jews came about and the way the Hebrew customs and traditions were performed."I have been hearing from Muslims, Christians and pagans about their way of worshipping, which they all saw as the best, till I heard about Aaron," said Ahenkorah. "Others and I arranged for him to come to Adiembra to preach to us. We compared his preaching to our ancestors' way of life that we had heard of, and I realized this was the real religion to practice because our ancestors did that."The people in the community attacked Ahenkorah and Ahenkyire because they thought they were bringing a strange religion to them."They beat us, took us to the police for arrest, prepared our charges to court, even though we have not insulted or caused harm to anyone," Ahenkorah said. "Most of the people who did this were Christians and pagans. They thought we had come to destroy their way of worshipping. The Christians condemned us by saying that Judaism had been abolished, and that we were trying to create confusion."Because of what Ahenkorah and Ahenkyire went through, they decided to move to Cote D'Ivoire, which had a similar ancestral history.Cote D'Ivoire, according to him, was also dominated by Christians. They faced the same problems they faced back home and decided to come back.Back in Ghana, Ahenkorah and Ahenkyire never gave up doing the work of God. They kept evangelizing Judaism both in Sefwi Wiawso and Cote D'Ivoire until Ahenkyire passed away in 1991.Ahenkorah was left without his mentor in Judaism but never gave up. He pursued God's work with a few others who believed in Judaism.Initially, they met in one of the classrooms of the schools in the town, but due to the challenges they faced, they changed location.They started meeting in the living room of one of the members until they had enough money from their tithe to start to build a synagogue.Kulanu is trying to arrange for Ahenkorah to obtain a visa to visit the United States next year, where he would be for some months. During that time, he would attend a conference and visit at least three cities. Kulanu has arranged for several rabbis to study with Ahenkorah and teach him for two weeks.HavdallahAfter sitting all day without doing anything except sleep, I waited patiently for sundown when Sabbath would end.Havdallah was celebrated in a form of feast, which began with Kwarteng extinguishing the Sabbath candles in wine.We had the same meal we had yesterday for supper. Kwarteng's youngest son was really happy and took an impressive amount of wine.Kwarteng's children could not wait for Sabbath to end. They kept turning on the television even though he yelled at them to stop.After we ended Sabbath, Kwarteng played a Hebrew song. His children enjoyed the music and sang along as it was played.For more information about Kulanu, visit www.kulanu.org.Florence Gbolu is a young Ghanaian journalist-in-training. She is learning to write about social-justice issues from volunteers with Journalists for Human Rights, a Toronto-based organization that builds the reporting capacity of the media in order to grow awareness of human-rights issues. Gbolu recently spent Shabbat with members of Ghana's Jewish community.
Friday, February 2, 2007
From Liberia to Ghana: A Refugee's Vision
September 14, 2005
By Florence Gbolu and Gabby Kalaw
Liberian Security forces had just thrown him into a ditch and Rocky was still trying to put together what was happening to him. His dreams of becoming a famous journalist were just beginning to come true, and in a matter of minutes his whole life was being turned upside down once again. Were it not for the rigid security around the neighbouring American rubber plant outside his radio station, Rocky would probably still find himself in the grip of the three security agents that had come to arrest him that night. He had just finished his usual nighttime talk show earlier that evening, more than five years ago on April 11, 2000 in Harbel. Rocky just finished locking up the station and on his way out, he was unsuspectingly greeted by three men from the Liberian police forces. “They pointed at me, ‘That’s the guy!’ and came up to me. One of them had a gun.“They told me, ‘Our commander wishes to speak with you,’” Rocky recalled. “I asked them who their commander was and they just told me that I would see when I met him. I went with them and they were rough, beating me with a club.”As he was marched towards the police vehicle, it was then that the rubber plant’s security guards passed by on their nightly rounds. “ When they saw the car coming, they panicked and threw me into a close-by ditch. I heard them say, ‘Let the car pass and we will deal with him so he will never forget.’“I was still trying to think of what was going on, but they wouldn’t tell me anything. Thanks to one of the stringent security officers I wouldn’t know what would become of me.”Rocky was not going to sit around and do nothing, and when the rubber company’s security patrol made its way near, he climbed out of the ditch to wave it down. They stopped to pick him up, and fortunately the patrol’s commanding officer was a good friend of his. That was his last night in Liberia. Like many in his community, the rubber plant’s patrol officer, Johnson, knew Rocky well. At 20 years old, Rocky received a letter of appointment to work as a newscaster at the Radio station in his hometown of Harbel. As he excelled in his new job, he was promoted to director of programmes and he started with a talk show called “Others Views,” involving plenty of discussion about political viewpoints and human rights issues. One particular issue the show tackled, drew the ire of representatives of Liberia’s Executive Mansion Special Security Unit (EMSSU) - the private security force for Liberia’s President at the time, Charles Taylor. As the new programme director, Rocky received a tip about two women who claimed that they were raped by some members of the EMSSU. The station found the claims legitimate, as the officers themselves admitted to the rapes. Rocky decided to put the issue on air for discussion. He invited the claimants, local opinion leaders, and the head of the EMSSU onto the show for a panel discussion. The EMSSU chief could only uncomfortably dodge everyone’s questions, and only really said that the whole incident was ‘unfortunate.’A couple of days later, Rocky received an anonymous letter telling him to “be very careful if he still wanted to be able to continue with his job,” and declaring that he could not defame an entire company of security forces and get away with it. When he reported this to the EMSSU chief who was the guest on his show, Rocky was assured that nothing would happen to him. The next day, however, when Rocky returned home, his neighbours told him that some men had been looking for him, and that they would be back for him. Again, he reported this incident to the head of EMSSU, and again he received reassurances about his safety.Rocky told to his good friend Johnson everything that had happened to him. “If you are threatened of your life, its no child’s play,” Rocky remembers his friend telling him. “Then he told me that his only suggestion is that I should get out of town, and it should be now. Then he offered to take me out of town that night, and asked if I wanted to pass by my house to pick up any things, but I was scared and thought they might be waiting for me at my house.”Johnson drove him right then from Harbel, to the border of Cote d’Ivoire where Rocky then found a bus to the Ivorian capital, Abidjan. “I didn’t feel like leaving Liberia because I felt that it was my home, and because of the fact that my father died serving his country. It should be appropriate that I die there.” When he was 13 years old, during the last war, Rocky had already lost his father who was a Captain in the Liberian Army and killed by rebel forces. In the following war, his mother and siblings disappeared from Harbel, and Rocky lost all contact with them. “I thought they were dead, like my father.” He was determined to make it in Liberia, and put himself through school, but it was now Rocky’s turn to disappear. His dreams were dashed and Rocky became a political refugee.Today, Rocky finds himself in Ghana. He lives in Accra, and works in Budumburum, a United Nations sponsored refugee camp situated close to an hour West of Accra. It is here where he continues on with his dream of journalism. In Abidjan he met Jermaine, who recommended that Ghana was a much safer place because of Cote d’Ivore’s political instability. Jermaine himself was ready to leave, and helped Rocky get to Ghana and enroll in Journalism school. While writing for some Ghanaian media, Rocky met another Budumburum resident, who saw that the camp needed a public voice of its own. Ghana’s media poorly covered most news from the camp, and most of the camp refugees did not have a source of information for news about their home, Liberia; so together with his new friend, they established The Vision. The Vision is distributed monthly on paper to the residents of Budumburum and is now even online. Slowly, it is growing and making itself known. And along with it, Rocky is getting a renewed chance at journalism, and at being a voice for Liberians. “I enjoy being in Ghana because it is peaceful but I want to go back and help build up my country, and Ghana has given me hope.”The Vision has also given Rocky new hope. With the repatriation of dozens of Liberians from Budumburum over the past month, copies of The Vision were handed out to the Liberian patriots at Kotoka airport. The Vision’s staff wanted to publicize its efforts to those in Liberia. One copy made its way into the hands of someone back in Harbel, who recognized her son’s name in the paper. It was almost a month ago when Rocky was told that his Mother had called The Vision, looking for him. “Are you sure it was my mother?” said Rocky of his initial reaction. “I was told that she was going to call back in a day or two, so I was able to talk to her a couple days after that. I thought for the longest time that they were dead, like my father.” He has since spoken to her regularly and thought about meeting his mom again, but he would first like to see what will happen after the Liberian elections come this October. “She told me that every time she hears my voice, she is reminded of my father.” -Names in this story have been changed.
By Florence Gbolu and Gabby Kalaw
Liberian Security forces had just thrown him into a ditch and Rocky was still trying to put together what was happening to him. His dreams of becoming a famous journalist were just beginning to come true, and in a matter of minutes his whole life was being turned upside down once again. Were it not for the rigid security around the neighbouring American rubber plant outside his radio station, Rocky would probably still find himself in the grip of the three security agents that had come to arrest him that night. He had just finished his usual nighttime talk show earlier that evening, more than five years ago on April 11, 2000 in Harbel. Rocky just finished locking up the station and on his way out, he was unsuspectingly greeted by three men from the Liberian police forces. “They pointed at me, ‘That’s the guy!’ and came up to me. One of them had a gun.“They told me, ‘Our commander wishes to speak with you,’” Rocky recalled. “I asked them who their commander was and they just told me that I would see when I met him. I went with them and they were rough, beating me with a club.”As he was marched towards the police vehicle, it was then that the rubber plant’s security guards passed by on their nightly rounds. “ When they saw the car coming, they panicked and threw me into a close-by ditch. I heard them say, ‘Let the car pass and we will deal with him so he will never forget.’“I was still trying to think of what was going on, but they wouldn’t tell me anything. Thanks to one of the stringent security officers I wouldn’t know what would become of me.”Rocky was not going to sit around and do nothing, and when the rubber company’s security patrol made its way near, he climbed out of the ditch to wave it down. They stopped to pick him up, and fortunately the patrol’s commanding officer was a good friend of his. That was his last night in Liberia. Like many in his community, the rubber plant’s patrol officer, Johnson, knew Rocky well. At 20 years old, Rocky received a letter of appointment to work as a newscaster at the Radio station in his hometown of Harbel. As he excelled in his new job, he was promoted to director of programmes and he started with a talk show called “Others Views,” involving plenty of discussion about political viewpoints and human rights issues. One particular issue the show tackled, drew the ire of representatives of Liberia’s Executive Mansion Special Security Unit (EMSSU) - the private security force for Liberia’s President at the time, Charles Taylor. As the new programme director, Rocky received a tip about two women who claimed that they were raped by some members of the EMSSU. The station found the claims legitimate, as the officers themselves admitted to the rapes. Rocky decided to put the issue on air for discussion. He invited the claimants, local opinion leaders, and the head of the EMSSU onto the show for a panel discussion. The EMSSU chief could only uncomfortably dodge everyone’s questions, and only really said that the whole incident was ‘unfortunate.’A couple of days later, Rocky received an anonymous letter telling him to “be very careful if he still wanted to be able to continue with his job,” and declaring that he could not defame an entire company of security forces and get away with it. When he reported this to the EMSSU chief who was the guest on his show, Rocky was assured that nothing would happen to him. The next day, however, when Rocky returned home, his neighbours told him that some men had been looking for him, and that they would be back for him. Again, he reported this incident to the head of EMSSU, and again he received reassurances about his safety.Rocky told to his good friend Johnson everything that had happened to him. “If you are threatened of your life, its no child’s play,” Rocky remembers his friend telling him. “Then he told me that his only suggestion is that I should get out of town, and it should be now. Then he offered to take me out of town that night, and asked if I wanted to pass by my house to pick up any things, but I was scared and thought they might be waiting for me at my house.”Johnson drove him right then from Harbel, to the border of Cote d’Ivoire where Rocky then found a bus to the Ivorian capital, Abidjan. “I didn’t feel like leaving Liberia because I felt that it was my home, and because of the fact that my father died serving his country. It should be appropriate that I die there.” When he was 13 years old, during the last war, Rocky had already lost his father who was a Captain in the Liberian Army and killed by rebel forces. In the following war, his mother and siblings disappeared from Harbel, and Rocky lost all contact with them. “I thought they were dead, like my father.” He was determined to make it in Liberia, and put himself through school, but it was now Rocky’s turn to disappear. His dreams were dashed and Rocky became a political refugee.Today, Rocky finds himself in Ghana. He lives in Accra, and works in Budumburum, a United Nations sponsored refugee camp situated close to an hour West of Accra. It is here where he continues on with his dream of journalism. In Abidjan he met Jermaine, who recommended that Ghana was a much safer place because of Cote d’Ivore’s political instability. Jermaine himself was ready to leave, and helped Rocky get to Ghana and enroll in Journalism school. While writing for some Ghanaian media, Rocky met another Budumburum resident, who saw that the camp needed a public voice of its own. Ghana’s media poorly covered most news from the camp, and most of the camp refugees did not have a source of information for news about their home, Liberia; so together with his new friend, they established The Vision. The Vision is distributed monthly on paper to the residents of Budumburum and is now even online. Slowly, it is growing and making itself known. And along with it, Rocky is getting a renewed chance at journalism, and at being a voice for Liberians. “I enjoy being in Ghana because it is peaceful but I want to go back and help build up my country, and Ghana has given me hope.”The Vision has also given Rocky new hope. With the repatriation of dozens of Liberians from Budumburum over the past month, copies of The Vision were handed out to the Liberian patriots at Kotoka airport. The Vision’s staff wanted to publicize its efforts to those in Liberia. One copy made its way into the hands of someone back in Harbel, who recognized her son’s name in the paper. It was almost a month ago when Rocky was told that his Mother had called The Vision, looking for him. “Are you sure it was my mother?” said Rocky of his initial reaction. “I was told that she was going to call back in a day or two, so I was able to talk to her a couple days after that. I thought for the longest time that they were dead, like my father.” He has since spoken to her regularly and thought about meeting his mom again, but he would first like to see what will happen after the Liberian elections come this October. “She told me that every time she hears my voice, she is reminded of my father.” -Names in this story have been changed.
Taking Away the Stigma of Witchcraft
By Florence Gbolu and Gabby Kalaw
For nine years, Azara Azindow has seen herself as a witch. She once ran a stall, selling food in Diari in the Northern Region. She was the youngest wife of her polygamous husband and lived in her own house with her children. Life was working well for her until the day one of the boys in her neighborhood became seriously ill.“The boy kept repeating my name as the cause of his sickness until he died,” Azindow said. “I only knew the boy in the neighborhood as a customer and also as someone who used the road where I sell and travel to town.” She had previously been on good terms with everyone in her area, but when the boy died she realized her life was in danger. The town blamed her for the boy’s death. Marked as a witch, Azindow had to run away. With the help of her brothers, Azindow ran and walked for several days through forests and quiet streets. She made her way to Gambaga, where she found refuge in the town’s witch camp. She now lives alone in a small, dark, mud hut; part of a compound with six other women who are now her surrogate family.Three and a half hours Northeast of Tamale, Gambaga provides a refuge for those accused of witchcraft. For several generations ‘witches’ cast-out from all over the North of Ghana, and even as far as Burkina Faso, seeking the protection of Gambaga’s chief, the Gambarana. Tradition holds that the Gambarana has the approval of the gods, and thus has the ability to prevent witches from using their powers. “Whoever brings a suspected witch here, I know the god that I will mention and it will neutralize the woman, the witch, and she will never to perform anything here until she leaves here,” explains the Gambarana. “They will say that they are a witch and I will ask, are you really a witch?’”“I can’t deny the fact that I am a witch,” Azindow said about her witchcraft abilities. “I was accused when the boy was sick and after, he died.” According to Lariba Muhama, of the Presbyterian Church’s re-integration project, accepting blame is common among the women in Gambaga. Sometimes the women are just afraid to deny it. The chief only accepts actual “witches,” so non-witches may be asked to leave Gambaga. Azara Azindow believes that she may be a witch because the evidence pointed to her, even if she never intentionally hurt anyone. Likely, she had nothing to do with it: A meningitis outbreak took place in the area in the 90’s, and the young boy suffered severe pains in the backbone, along with other symptoms consistent with Cerebral Spinal Meningitis. “These women are asked if really they are witches and they admit it, but cannot tell what they do and how they perform witchcraft,” Muhama said. “They are almost forced to accept something that they are not.” She said these women are maltreated back in their villages; “Some [villages] even torture them up to the point that they even kill them. They used to kill them. Some they used to even tie the women down and they struggle [under the sun] until they die.” Over 150 women in the Gambaga camp have stories similar to Azindow’s. All admit to being witches, but are more like village outcasts. The are often widows without any male support, making them easy defenceless targets in their villages. “A woman will travel to different villages to go and marry into a different community where she is alone. She has no relatives there, so the natives [of the town] can accuse her of witchcraft,” Muhama pointed out. There are sometimes also wizards, but they do not live in the camp, they come to the camp and go. Men are much more accepted back into their communities, because they are raised there, unlike the women.“These men come and perform the necessary purification after which they go they can go back to their homes, because they are natives.” In Gambaga, The Gambarana has taken responsibility for housing and feeding the women, and explained that it can be a pleasant place to live. “When they come,” the chief said, “I organize boys to build a hut for them.”The women work for the chief during the sowing and harvest seasons. “I feed them with the food from my farm. I also use the money I get from [the reintegration program] and from selling my harvest, to build and roof their huts, and give them some money to buy what they need.” These women can stay with the Gambarana for as long as they need to, or until their children or family come to take them home. “When their relatives come for them, we try to advise them on the way to live with them and they also thank me with some gift which is meant to thank me for caring for their relations all this while. I don’t charge any fee,” the Gambarana spoke of the efforts. With the help of the Presbyterian Church’s reintegration project, the Gambaga camp is the most organized camp in the area. The project strives to improve living conditions in the camp, and tries to reintegrate the women into their communities.The group works with the chief to set up the conditions for the women’s return to their communities.The major concern for Muhama and the reintegration project is the way they women live and are treated. The project has organized the camp into tribe-based compounds for comfort, and has helped educate the locals of Gambaga to accept the outcast women.The project trying to put a stop to this kind of behaviour by educating the people in the villages around the north. “Before a woman goes back, we make sure that the village understands that what they do to the women is not right.” “We have to ensure that the people are living happy and peacefully after they return,” added Simon Ngota, the project supervisor. “Because it can be that you send the women back, and the community people can rise up against them again.”Some women have been in the camp as long as 20 years. Previously, one woman had been there for 30 years, but thanks to the Church’s project, she was able to return to her family. “We have workshops for the chiefs and the opinion leaders of the villages where they come from,” explained Muhama. The project educates village leaders about the cause of sicknesses and about how to deal appropriately with a suspected witch. Some of the educated chiefs already try to teach their people about the nature of witchcraft and how their people should not maltreat them, but as Muhama put it, “Sometimes maybe the chief is not around, and before the chief realizes it, they will kill the woman.”The Gambaga camp is the only one with a permanent staff providing assistance. According to Ngota, “The other places, they do not have established projects with the staff like we are here, with people working to improve the camps.”In addition Muhama said the project tries to give these women loans and skills to start businesses, and also bring them closer to God. People from the town buy and sell to the women despite the witch stigma. Muhama noted, “Formerly these women were discriminated in the Gambaga but because of the integration going on we have been able to educate the people…from the chiefs down to the youth you now accept them as a community and a family as well.” Some of the accused witches in Gambaga even have children or grandchildren staying with them. For them, “we have established a school and we now have about 15 children enrolled,” said Muhama.Meanwhile, Azara Azindow has not seen her own children and grandchildren much. She said she is happy at the camp, but still wishes the day would come when her sons come to the Gambarana and ask for his permission to take her back home.“I want to see all my children, but they have hidden themselves and their children from me.”
For nine years, Azara Azindow has seen herself as a witch. She once ran a stall, selling food in Diari in the Northern Region. She was the youngest wife of her polygamous husband and lived in her own house with her children. Life was working well for her until the day one of the boys in her neighborhood became seriously ill.“The boy kept repeating my name as the cause of his sickness until he died,” Azindow said. “I only knew the boy in the neighborhood as a customer and also as someone who used the road where I sell and travel to town.” She had previously been on good terms with everyone in her area, but when the boy died she realized her life was in danger. The town blamed her for the boy’s death. Marked as a witch, Azindow had to run away. With the help of her brothers, Azindow ran and walked for several days through forests and quiet streets. She made her way to Gambaga, where she found refuge in the town’s witch camp. She now lives alone in a small, dark, mud hut; part of a compound with six other women who are now her surrogate family.Three and a half hours Northeast of Tamale, Gambaga provides a refuge for those accused of witchcraft. For several generations ‘witches’ cast-out from all over the North of Ghana, and even as far as Burkina Faso, seeking the protection of Gambaga’s chief, the Gambarana. Tradition holds that the Gambarana has the approval of the gods, and thus has the ability to prevent witches from using their powers. “Whoever brings a suspected witch here, I know the god that I will mention and it will neutralize the woman, the witch, and she will never to perform anything here until she leaves here,” explains the Gambarana. “They will say that they are a witch and I will ask, are you really a witch?’”“I can’t deny the fact that I am a witch,” Azindow said about her witchcraft abilities. “I was accused when the boy was sick and after, he died.” According to Lariba Muhama, of the Presbyterian Church’s re-integration project, accepting blame is common among the women in Gambaga. Sometimes the women are just afraid to deny it. The chief only accepts actual “witches,” so non-witches may be asked to leave Gambaga. Azara Azindow believes that she may be a witch because the evidence pointed to her, even if she never intentionally hurt anyone. Likely, she had nothing to do with it: A meningitis outbreak took place in the area in the 90’s, and the young boy suffered severe pains in the backbone, along with other symptoms consistent with Cerebral Spinal Meningitis. “These women are asked if really they are witches and they admit it, but cannot tell what they do and how they perform witchcraft,” Muhama said. “They are almost forced to accept something that they are not.” She said these women are maltreated back in their villages; “Some [villages] even torture them up to the point that they even kill them. They used to kill them. Some they used to even tie the women down and they struggle [under the sun] until they die.” Over 150 women in the Gambaga camp have stories similar to Azindow’s. All admit to being witches, but are more like village outcasts. The are often widows without any male support, making them easy defenceless targets in their villages. “A woman will travel to different villages to go and marry into a different community where she is alone. She has no relatives there, so the natives [of the town] can accuse her of witchcraft,” Muhama pointed out. There are sometimes also wizards, but they do not live in the camp, they come to the camp and go. Men are much more accepted back into their communities, because they are raised there, unlike the women.“These men come and perform the necessary purification after which they go they can go back to their homes, because they are natives.” In Gambaga, The Gambarana has taken responsibility for housing and feeding the women, and explained that it can be a pleasant place to live. “When they come,” the chief said, “I organize boys to build a hut for them.”The women work for the chief during the sowing and harvest seasons. “I feed them with the food from my farm. I also use the money I get from [the reintegration program] and from selling my harvest, to build and roof their huts, and give them some money to buy what they need.” These women can stay with the Gambarana for as long as they need to, or until their children or family come to take them home. “When their relatives come for them, we try to advise them on the way to live with them and they also thank me with some gift which is meant to thank me for caring for their relations all this while. I don’t charge any fee,” the Gambarana spoke of the efforts. With the help of the Presbyterian Church’s reintegration project, the Gambaga camp is the most organized camp in the area. The project strives to improve living conditions in the camp, and tries to reintegrate the women into their communities.The group works with the chief to set up the conditions for the women’s return to their communities.The major concern for Muhama and the reintegration project is the way they women live and are treated. The project has organized the camp into tribe-based compounds for comfort, and has helped educate the locals of Gambaga to accept the outcast women.The project trying to put a stop to this kind of behaviour by educating the people in the villages around the north. “Before a woman goes back, we make sure that the village understands that what they do to the women is not right.” “We have to ensure that the people are living happy and peacefully after they return,” added Simon Ngota, the project supervisor. “Because it can be that you send the women back, and the community people can rise up against them again.”Some women have been in the camp as long as 20 years. Previously, one woman had been there for 30 years, but thanks to the Church’s project, she was able to return to her family. “We have workshops for the chiefs and the opinion leaders of the villages where they come from,” explained Muhama. The project educates village leaders about the cause of sicknesses and about how to deal appropriately with a suspected witch. Some of the educated chiefs already try to teach their people about the nature of witchcraft and how their people should not maltreat them, but as Muhama put it, “Sometimes maybe the chief is not around, and before the chief realizes it, they will kill the woman.”The Gambaga camp is the only one with a permanent staff providing assistance. According to Ngota, “The other places, they do not have established projects with the staff like we are here, with people working to improve the camps.”In addition Muhama said the project tries to give these women loans and skills to start businesses, and also bring them closer to God. People from the town buy and sell to the women despite the witch stigma. Muhama noted, “Formerly these women were discriminated in the Gambaga but because of the integration going on we have been able to educate the people…from the chiefs down to the youth you now accept them as a community and a family as well.” Some of the accused witches in Gambaga even have children or grandchildren staying with them. For them, “we have established a school and we now have about 15 children enrolled,” said Muhama.Meanwhile, Azara Azindow has not seen her own children and grandchildren much. She said she is happy at the camp, but still wishes the day would come when her sons come to the Gambarana and ask for his permission to take her back home.“I want to see all my children, but they have hidden themselves and their children from me.”
Waiting for the Water to Run: Ghana’s Urban Water Problems
December 07, 2005
By: Gabby Kalaw with contribution from Florence Gbolu
Auntie Adjoa lives in Tabora, one of the fast-developing areas on the outskirts of Accra. She is one of the people who built up the community, and has been in the area for close to 12 years. Despite living in Ghana’s capital city, Adjoa’s area does not have proper water access.Her neighborhood is one of the many in Accra that rely on water tankers for their water needs, and that lack a secure source for water. Adjoa and her neighbours are subject to the whim of the unregulated tanker operators, and must pay whatever prices the operators ask. “I have to spend about ¢10,000 on water in the morning and another ¢10,000 in the evening.” Adjoa said. According to her, water from the nearby well costs ¢300 per bucket while the tanker’s pipe borne water costs ¢1000, or if they’re lucky, ¢700.With a connection, water costs could be as low as ¢80 a bucket. Auntie Adjoa sells kenkey in area, a food made with maize and water.At 4:30 in the morning she wakes up to start preparing kenkey. Two of the people living with her go to fetch water, about 250 metres away from their home. More than a third of Accra’s population suffers hardships similar to Adjoa’s. Water is life, and they are being forced to pay an unreasonably high amount for it. According to WaterAid, the international non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to provision of safe water to the poor, 75% of Accra’s residents do not have 24 hour access to water. A further 10% have no access to water at all. WaterAid Ghana’s Advocacy Manager, Mohammed Abdul-Nashiru, said that because many people are living on unimproved lands and illegal grounds, the Ghana Water Company (GWCL) is unable to connect them to water. This leaves many people reliant on private small water enterprises (SWE’s), like sachet water providers and water tanker.“The SWE's are like human pipes,” Said Abdul-Nashiru, “It’s only through them that some populations are able to get water, and yet they are not regulated. They charge whatever they want which is not good for the poor, and you cannot vouch for the quality of water they deliver.”Adjoa’s area is one of those unimproved lands. “We applied to the water company to supply us with water, but were told the lines had not reached our streets and area; more so they said the gutters have not been constructed. We have to wait because if we have to connect from the other streets it will cost us large sums of money.”Many people will more likely rely on sources that they are familiar with, like wells, rather than rusty tankers or other questionable receptacles. Adjoa though, must buy her water from the SWE’s. And because so many people sell kenkey, business is not moving as fast as it used to. Water takes away a lot of her earnings.”“I hardly make the sales I used to,” she said “After taking water out of my money, I still have to buy firewood, vegetables and feed my family, and I’m virtually left with nothing at the end of the day.”The World Health Organization standards for water delivery and access suggest that every individual should have access to 45 liters of safe water per person. According to WaterAid, households in some areas of Accra have access to less than 10 litres a day.According to a survey the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission carried out in 2000-01, the connected poor actually spend less than 5% of their income and use more water (35 litres per capita) than their counterparts who depend on the alternative suppliers (15 litres and 12% of household income).WaterAid Ghana defines the urban poor in terms of water access as “those who must fetch water by the bucket.”But even those who are connected to the water grid often suffer from unsafe water. Many water pipes are often broken and risk contamination. In other urban areas, diseases like guinea worm or cholera from the rural surroundings can creep into the water system if it is not maintained properly. “The water that is supposed to give them life can then inadvertently leads to their death,” pointed out Abdul-Nashiru. Coverage of the urban sprawl is not the only challenge in providing safe, secure water in Ghana’s cities. Financing for water projects has also been a constant struggle.“Financing is weak, and potentially explosive because it is largely donor funded,” said Abdul Nashiru, suggesting that the donor funds cannot be relied on in the long run. “The government has not demonstrated enough commitment to dealing with the water situation in the country,” he continued. “Yes, the government has indicated that water is one of its priority areas… but in our opinion, once you prioritize a particular sector, you demonstrate it with financial commitment.”WaterAid’s reviews show that water is receiving close to the least in government spending. In the government’s budget, spending on water ranked last - well behind education, agric, and even rural electrification. Clean water is far more essential to life than all of them.In a review of poverty reduction spending among African nations, Ghana was second last ahead only of Zambia, with only 3.5% of its PRS spent on water.The Ghanaian government has yet to even implement the lifeline tariff, a subsidy to guarantee that the poor would have access to water.-The Urban Water Project-Having recently announced a new contract with the Dutch company Vitens and the South African company Rand Water, the Ghanaian government now hopes some private sector management will begin to alleviate the country’s water problems.Under the Urban Water Project, the government via the Ghana Water Company (GWCL) has entrusted the management of the Ghana water supply to the Vitens/Rand consortium. It wants to expand the reliable supply of safe water in the urban areas; insure that low income consumers gain access at affordable prices; and ensure the sustainability of the system through cost recovery.“The Aim of the project is to eventually have every Ghanaian connected to Ghana water so that they may have access to safe water,” said Enamil Ashon, Public Relation Officer for the Urban Water Project Unfortunately under GWCL’s arrangement with the Vitens/Rand consortium, Adjoa and other residents of peri-Accra will continue to be out of the service area for some time. Under section 3 of the contract, Vitens/Rand is only obligated to provide services and maintenance within the current service area. Any expansions must be initiated by GWCL.Ghana’s Millennium Development Goal for urban water is to provide access to70% of the population by 2015. To achieve this Ghana would need to provide 5700 households a month with access.Once again, part of the problem is cost. Ashon said that it would take 1.5 billion dollars at one go to solve the problems overnight, or an investment of 105 million dollars a year for 15 years.“The Ghana government only gives 35 million dollars a year to [GWCL]. It’s insufficient,” stated Ashon. “Even with the Urban Water Project, we are nowhere near solving the problem… it doesn’t mean everyone will get water after five years.”The National Coalition against Water Privatisation (NCAWP) is a lot more skeptical of the Urban Water Project’s privatisation. In a press statement, they felt that “All the claims that the poor will be served are completely unfounded.”According to the NCAWP, private operators focusing on cost recovery have too much incentive to increase prices. “It is profits they look to, not people’s health,” said Al-Hassan Adom, the movement’s Southern sector Coordinator. The press statement pointed out that one of the ways to increase non-revenue water is to cut off those who are too poor to pay, and that Tanzania’s government was forced to drive out the British Multinational, Biwater, for not servicing the urban poor.WaterAid, on the other hand, has yet to take a position on the contract and its effect on the security of the water supply. Abdul-Nashiru said, “We are still looking over the contract, but whatever Ghana’s arrangement should be, it should not overlook the needs of the poor”In response to the track record of privatization, Ashon said that in other countries, they did not stick to the contract, and nobody was paying attention to it. He suggested though, that the government will want NGO’s and others to come on board.“Here, in our system, the contract is going to be adhered to,” said Ashon, “We have to put pressure on the private operator to observe the tenets of the contract, and that is where we need the NGO’s to ensure that the private operator does what it is supposed to do. If it does that, we’ll have a perfect system.”
By: Gabby Kalaw with contribution from Florence Gbolu
Auntie Adjoa lives in Tabora, one of the fast-developing areas on the outskirts of Accra. She is one of the people who built up the community, and has been in the area for close to 12 years. Despite living in Ghana’s capital city, Adjoa’s area does not have proper water access.Her neighborhood is one of the many in Accra that rely on water tankers for their water needs, and that lack a secure source for water. Adjoa and her neighbours are subject to the whim of the unregulated tanker operators, and must pay whatever prices the operators ask. “I have to spend about ¢10,000 on water in the morning and another ¢10,000 in the evening.” Adjoa said. According to her, water from the nearby well costs ¢300 per bucket while the tanker’s pipe borne water costs ¢1000, or if they’re lucky, ¢700.With a connection, water costs could be as low as ¢80 a bucket. Auntie Adjoa sells kenkey in area, a food made with maize and water.At 4:30 in the morning she wakes up to start preparing kenkey. Two of the people living with her go to fetch water, about 250 metres away from their home. More than a third of Accra’s population suffers hardships similar to Adjoa’s. Water is life, and they are being forced to pay an unreasonably high amount for it. According to WaterAid, the international non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to provision of safe water to the poor, 75% of Accra’s residents do not have 24 hour access to water. A further 10% have no access to water at all. WaterAid Ghana’s Advocacy Manager, Mohammed Abdul-Nashiru, said that because many people are living on unimproved lands and illegal grounds, the Ghana Water Company (GWCL) is unable to connect them to water. This leaves many people reliant on private small water enterprises (SWE’s), like sachet water providers and water tanker.“The SWE's are like human pipes,” Said Abdul-Nashiru, “It’s only through them that some populations are able to get water, and yet they are not regulated. They charge whatever they want which is not good for the poor, and you cannot vouch for the quality of water they deliver.”Adjoa’s area is one of those unimproved lands. “We applied to the water company to supply us with water, but were told the lines had not reached our streets and area; more so they said the gutters have not been constructed. We have to wait because if we have to connect from the other streets it will cost us large sums of money.”Many people will more likely rely on sources that they are familiar with, like wells, rather than rusty tankers or other questionable receptacles. Adjoa though, must buy her water from the SWE’s. And because so many people sell kenkey, business is not moving as fast as it used to. Water takes away a lot of her earnings.”“I hardly make the sales I used to,” she said “After taking water out of my money, I still have to buy firewood, vegetables and feed my family, and I’m virtually left with nothing at the end of the day.”The World Health Organization standards for water delivery and access suggest that every individual should have access to 45 liters of safe water per person. According to WaterAid, households in some areas of Accra have access to less than 10 litres a day.According to a survey the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission carried out in 2000-01, the connected poor actually spend less than 5% of their income and use more water (35 litres per capita) than their counterparts who depend on the alternative suppliers (15 litres and 12% of household income).WaterAid Ghana defines the urban poor in terms of water access as “those who must fetch water by the bucket.”But even those who are connected to the water grid often suffer from unsafe water. Many water pipes are often broken and risk contamination. In other urban areas, diseases like guinea worm or cholera from the rural surroundings can creep into the water system if it is not maintained properly. “The water that is supposed to give them life can then inadvertently leads to their death,” pointed out Abdul-Nashiru. Coverage of the urban sprawl is not the only challenge in providing safe, secure water in Ghana’s cities. Financing for water projects has also been a constant struggle.“Financing is weak, and potentially explosive because it is largely donor funded,” said Abdul Nashiru, suggesting that the donor funds cannot be relied on in the long run. “The government has not demonstrated enough commitment to dealing with the water situation in the country,” he continued. “Yes, the government has indicated that water is one of its priority areas… but in our opinion, once you prioritize a particular sector, you demonstrate it with financial commitment.”WaterAid’s reviews show that water is receiving close to the least in government spending. In the government’s budget, spending on water ranked last - well behind education, agric, and even rural electrification. Clean water is far more essential to life than all of them.In a review of poverty reduction spending among African nations, Ghana was second last ahead only of Zambia, with only 3.5% of its PRS spent on water.The Ghanaian government has yet to even implement the lifeline tariff, a subsidy to guarantee that the poor would have access to water.-The Urban Water Project-Having recently announced a new contract with the Dutch company Vitens and the South African company Rand Water, the Ghanaian government now hopes some private sector management will begin to alleviate the country’s water problems.Under the Urban Water Project, the government via the Ghana Water Company (GWCL) has entrusted the management of the Ghana water supply to the Vitens/Rand consortium. It wants to expand the reliable supply of safe water in the urban areas; insure that low income consumers gain access at affordable prices; and ensure the sustainability of the system through cost recovery.“The Aim of the project is to eventually have every Ghanaian connected to Ghana water so that they may have access to safe water,” said Enamil Ashon, Public Relation Officer for the Urban Water Project Unfortunately under GWCL’s arrangement with the Vitens/Rand consortium, Adjoa and other residents of peri-Accra will continue to be out of the service area for some time. Under section 3 of the contract, Vitens/Rand is only obligated to provide services and maintenance within the current service area. Any expansions must be initiated by GWCL.Ghana’s Millennium Development Goal for urban water is to provide access to70% of the population by 2015. To achieve this Ghana would need to provide 5700 households a month with access.Once again, part of the problem is cost. Ashon said that it would take 1.5 billion dollars at one go to solve the problems overnight, or an investment of 105 million dollars a year for 15 years.“The Ghana government only gives 35 million dollars a year to [GWCL]. It’s insufficient,” stated Ashon. “Even with the Urban Water Project, we are nowhere near solving the problem… it doesn’t mean everyone will get water after five years.”The National Coalition against Water Privatisation (NCAWP) is a lot more skeptical of the Urban Water Project’s privatisation. In a press statement, they felt that “All the claims that the poor will be served are completely unfounded.”According to the NCAWP, private operators focusing on cost recovery have too much incentive to increase prices. “It is profits they look to, not people’s health,” said Al-Hassan Adom, the movement’s Southern sector Coordinator. The press statement pointed out that one of the ways to increase non-revenue water is to cut off those who are too poor to pay, and that Tanzania’s government was forced to drive out the British Multinational, Biwater, for not servicing the urban poor.WaterAid, on the other hand, has yet to take a position on the contract and its effect on the security of the water supply. Abdul-Nashiru said, “We are still looking over the contract, but whatever Ghana’s arrangement should be, it should not overlook the needs of the poor”In response to the track record of privatization, Ashon said that in other countries, they did not stick to the contract, and nobody was paying attention to it. He suggested though, that the government will want NGO’s and others to come on board.“Here, in our system, the contract is going to be adhered to,” said Ashon, “We have to put pressure on the private operator to observe the tenets of the contract, and that is where we need the NGO’s to ensure that the private operator does what it is supposed to do. If it does that, we’ll have a perfect system.”
SG-SSB loses appeal in money gram case
Thursday 23 November 2006
Florence Gbolu, Chronicle
The Supreme Court, yesterday upheld by a four-to-one majority, the decision of the Court of Appeal that an agreement executed between CBAM Inc. and SG-SSB dated December 1, 1999 was still valid and therefore defendant/appellants are not entitled to affirm part of it, which is beneficial to it, and disaffirm the rest.
The Appeal Court on June 3, 2005, affirmed the judgment of the High Court, Accra delivered on November 4, 2004, brought before it by SG- SSB in the legal tussle over terms of an agency agreement between it and CBAM Services Inc. The High court in its judgement granted the reliefs sought by the plaintiff, CBAM Inc, which were that on a true and proper interpretation of the agreement executed between the parties dated December 1, 1999 the said contract as a whole is valid and still subsists, hence the defendant is not entitled to affirm part of it, which is beneficial to it, and disaffirm the rest.
The court had declared also that the purported termination of the contract and total repudiation of it by a letter of the Defendant dated 24th April, 2003, on grounds of deviation of performance by the Plaintiff is unjustifiable and repugnant to the principles of justice, equity and good conscience, since the contract was carried out in its essential parts. It declared further that the act complained of did not amount to such a breach of a fundamental term in the agreement, which went to its root so as to bring the whole agreement to an end.
Also, the court ordered that an order of account be taken of monies received by the bank under the said agreement and the immediate payment of arrears of the amount due to plaintiff and interest thereon at such rate.
The court further ordered specific performance by the defendant (SG-SSB) of all its obligations under the said agreement and an injunction restraining it whether by itself, its servants or agents or otherwise however, until Judgment, from operating the Money Gram Service International programme without the involvement of the Plaintiff, receiving commissions on transfers paid into its account without payment to the Plaintiff its shares of the fees or commission.
The bone of contention in the case is that in 1996, CBAM INC., the Plaintiff initiated a business transaction by which Money Gram, a world wide money transfer service came to Ghana with SSB Bank.
The bank, accepting to act as the agent of Money Gram, having promoted the agency between it and Money Gram, a contract in writing was executed on the 1st of December 1999.
In the said contract, CBAM undertook among others to develop, implement and finance advertisement and other promotional programmes directed specifically at potential users of the Money Gram service outside Ghana.
The said contract had a proviso that CBAM shall submit all its advertising and promotional programmes and materials to the Bank for a written approval prior to usage and shall furnish the appellant with evidence of such advertisement on quarterly basis.
The parties operated this contract until 24th April, 2003 when the bank wrote to terminate the contract invoking a clause, which gave them the right to terminate upon a breach by the respondent of the obligations under clause 2 and this resulted in the legal tussle between the parties.
The trial Court entered Judgment in favour of CBAM Services Inc., but the bank appealed against the Judgment on the grounds that the trial judge had erred in entering judgment for CBAM.
The banks appeal stated that the judge erred in holding that that they had waived or condoned the Plaintiffs’ breach of the agreement and that in holding that they were not entitled to terminate the said agreement.
They averred in their appeal that the court erred in holding that the failure of the plaintiff to obtain prior written approval for the advertisement was not fatal and in declaring the termination clause in the agreement unenforceable when CBAM claimed no such releif.
After several months of litigation at the High Court, the case made its way to the Supreme Court, after the Court of Appeal upheld the former court’s decision, except for an injunction sought.
The court awarded no cost when counsel for plaintiff, George Gardiner holding brief for Dr. Ekow Daniels sought for one, as the court in respect of the cordiality and the fact that parties are still in business.
The dissenting voice was the presiding judge, Mr. Justice W. A. Attuguba. Other members on the panel were Justices Georgina Wood, S. K. Asiamah, Julius Ansah and R.T. Aninakwah.
Florence Gbolu, Chronicle
The Supreme Court, yesterday upheld by a four-to-one majority, the decision of the Court of Appeal that an agreement executed between CBAM Inc. and SG-SSB dated December 1, 1999 was still valid and therefore defendant/appellants are not entitled to affirm part of it, which is beneficial to it, and disaffirm the rest.
The Appeal Court on June 3, 2005, affirmed the judgment of the High Court, Accra delivered on November 4, 2004, brought before it by SG- SSB in the legal tussle over terms of an agency agreement between it and CBAM Services Inc. The High court in its judgement granted the reliefs sought by the plaintiff, CBAM Inc, which were that on a true and proper interpretation of the agreement executed between the parties dated December 1, 1999 the said contract as a whole is valid and still subsists, hence the defendant is not entitled to affirm part of it, which is beneficial to it, and disaffirm the rest.
The court had declared also that the purported termination of the contract and total repudiation of it by a letter of the Defendant dated 24th April, 2003, on grounds of deviation of performance by the Plaintiff is unjustifiable and repugnant to the principles of justice, equity and good conscience, since the contract was carried out in its essential parts. It declared further that the act complained of did not amount to such a breach of a fundamental term in the agreement, which went to its root so as to bring the whole agreement to an end.
Also, the court ordered that an order of account be taken of monies received by the bank under the said agreement and the immediate payment of arrears of the amount due to plaintiff and interest thereon at such rate.
The court further ordered specific performance by the defendant (SG-SSB) of all its obligations under the said agreement and an injunction restraining it whether by itself, its servants or agents or otherwise however, until Judgment, from operating the Money Gram Service International programme without the involvement of the Plaintiff, receiving commissions on transfers paid into its account without payment to the Plaintiff its shares of the fees or commission.
The bone of contention in the case is that in 1996, CBAM INC., the Plaintiff initiated a business transaction by which Money Gram, a world wide money transfer service came to Ghana with SSB Bank.
The bank, accepting to act as the agent of Money Gram, having promoted the agency between it and Money Gram, a contract in writing was executed on the 1st of December 1999.
In the said contract, CBAM undertook among others to develop, implement and finance advertisement and other promotional programmes directed specifically at potential users of the Money Gram service outside Ghana.
The said contract had a proviso that CBAM shall submit all its advertising and promotional programmes and materials to the Bank for a written approval prior to usage and shall furnish the appellant with evidence of such advertisement on quarterly basis.
The parties operated this contract until 24th April, 2003 when the bank wrote to terminate the contract invoking a clause, which gave them the right to terminate upon a breach by the respondent of the obligations under clause 2 and this resulted in the legal tussle between the parties.
The trial Court entered Judgment in favour of CBAM Services Inc., but the bank appealed against the Judgment on the grounds that the trial judge had erred in entering judgment for CBAM.
The banks appeal stated that the judge erred in holding that that they had waived or condoned the Plaintiffs’ breach of the agreement and that in holding that they were not entitled to terminate the said agreement.
They averred in their appeal that the court erred in holding that the failure of the plaintiff to obtain prior written approval for the advertisement was not fatal and in declaring the termination clause in the agreement unenforceable when CBAM claimed no such releif.
After several months of litigation at the High Court, the case made its way to the Supreme Court, after the Court of Appeal upheld the former court’s decision, except for an injunction sought.
The court awarded no cost when counsel for plaintiff, George Gardiner holding brief for Dr. Ekow Daniels sought for one, as the court in respect of the cordiality and the fact that parties are still in business.
The dissenting voice was the presiding judge, Mr. Justice W. A. Attuguba. Other members on the panel were Justices Georgina Wood, S. K. Asiamah, Julius Ansah and R.T. Aninakwah.
Ghana sees increase of petrol prices
by Florence Gbolu and Gifty Korantemaa
04-10-05
The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) reviewed the prices of petroleum products, increasing premium and gas oil by 4.9 % and 6.6 % respectively. Whilst the prices of kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) remained unchanged that of premix was reduced by 4.8 %. Announcing the review, the NPA stated “In arriving at the new ex-refinery prices, the Authority reviewed the price developments on the world oil market, prices of the finished product imports as well as the operations of the Tema Oil Refinery.”
The NPA explained that “Crude oil prices increased from $ 60 per barrel in August to an all time high of $ 70 per barrel in September as a result of the two hurricanes, Katrina and Rita, that hit the US Gulf coast.” The statement explained further “Even though The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), has continued to show improvements in its efficiency, the country has had to import a little more refined products than otherwise would have been necessary dueto routine maintenance operations at TOR.”
The NPA stated that lower cost of operations by TOR, as well as the stability of the cedi, combined to mitigate the impact the increases on the world market. “All the same their lower costs helped to mitigate the price increases that the world market prices alone would have called for in the fourth quarter. The exchange rate of the cedi also remained stable during the period. These factors have combined to reduce the impact of the increases in the international crude oil prices on the local market,” it continued.
“The calculations by the National Petroleum Authority indicate changes in the ex-refinery prices of some of the products. While that of Premium and Gasoil went up by 9.3 % and 9.2 % respectively that of Premix came down by 6.7 %.” “The ex-refinery prices for all the other products however, remain unchanged,” the NPA concluded.
Source: Ghanaian Chronicle Online
04-10-05
The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) reviewed the prices of petroleum products, increasing premium and gas oil by 4.9 % and 6.6 % respectively. Whilst the prices of kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) remained unchanged that of premix was reduced by 4.8 %. Announcing the review, the NPA stated “In arriving at the new ex-refinery prices, the Authority reviewed the price developments on the world oil market, prices of the finished product imports as well as the operations of the Tema Oil Refinery.”
The NPA explained that “Crude oil prices increased from $ 60 per barrel in August to an all time high of $ 70 per barrel in September as a result of the two hurricanes, Katrina and Rita, that hit the US Gulf coast.” The statement explained further “Even though The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), has continued to show improvements in its efficiency, the country has had to import a little more refined products than otherwise would have been necessary dueto routine maintenance operations at TOR.”
The NPA stated that lower cost of operations by TOR, as well as the stability of the cedi, combined to mitigate the impact the increases on the world market. “All the same their lower costs helped to mitigate the price increases that the world market prices alone would have called for in the fourth quarter. The exchange rate of the cedi also remained stable during the period. These factors have combined to reduce the impact of the increases in the international crude oil prices on the local market,” it continued.
“The calculations by the National Petroleum Authority indicate changes in the ex-refinery prices of some of the products. While that of Premium and Gasoil went up by 9.3 % and 9.2 % respectively that of Premix came down by 6.7 %.” “The ex-refinery prices for all the other products however, remain unchanged,” the NPA concluded.
Source: Ghanaian Chronicle Online
Same sex
By Jaime Jacques and Florence Gbolu (Ghanaian Chronicle)
June 22, 2005: Accra -
Beaten, harassed, and bereft of many fundamental human rights, Prince Kweku Macdonald refuses to give up his fight. He has suffered violence and discrimination at the hands of fellow Ghanaians for years, ever since people started suspecting that he might be gay.
At around the age of eighteen, while attending pastorial school, Macdonald started feeling attracted to men. "I was brought up to believe that it was against God's law and I thought, how can you, as a Christian, feel this way? I prayed for several months and years, that how I felt about myself would change, but I realized that it wasn't going to change."
Hopeless, Macdonald was thinking of taking his own life when he met someone who helped him deal with his feelings of frustration and despair. "I confided in a friend and he told me that he had felt the same way, for years, and that I was not an evil person."
Encouraged by the confirmation that he was not alone, Macdonald abandoned his suicide plan and instead began working to protect gay rights in Ghana.
Now a human rights activist with the gay and lesbian association of Ghana, Macdonald wants society's attitude towards gays and lesbians to change. "I think it is possible. If two religious groups are living together, then it is possible for two types of people to also live together."
But there is a significant difference. It is not against the law to practice different religions. It is illegal, however, to take part in sexual activities that are not intended for procreation. Article 104 of the criminal code prohibits unnatural carnal knowledge.
That means that gay and lesbian sex is punishable by law, even when it is done in the privacy of your own home. This, says one Ghanaian lawyer, who wishes to remain unidentified, is in direct violation of the constitution, as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which has been ratified by Ghana. She is using this ICCPR as a means of protecting her client, who was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for having sex with another man.
The covenant states that, "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence." "Ghana, in ratifying that covenant, is bound to implement its provisions," she says.
She claims that the rights to privacy, a private life and not to be discriminated against on the grounds of sex or sexual orientation are fundamental human rights and freedoms inherent in a democracy.
This is the first case of this kind she has worked on, and she admits that most of her colleagues wouldn't represent a gay client. "The attitude is very difficult in this society," she says. "I think religion has a lot to do with it."
Macdonald agrees that the strong belief in Christianity in Ghana made dealing with his sexual orientation that much harder, but eventually, he was able to reconcile the two aspects of his life. "I re-examined my life, and thought that I would combine the two," he says.
"I realized that what I was taught when growing up wasn't the truth; this perception people are having about what God did and what God wants, about being gay and being Christian."
Macdonald says he prays and goes to church, and refutes the idea that because one is gay, it is not possible to be a good Christian. "Christianity is a relationship between man and God."
His opinion is not necessarily popular among other Christians, but years of discrimination have taught him not to rely on other people's opinions about his private life. "My advice to others would be that when you are coming to accept your sexuality and you feel alone, know that you are not alone. There are hundreds of people feeling the way you are feeling, all over the world."
June 22, 2005: Accra -
Beaten, harassed, and bereft of many fundamental human rights, Prince Kweku Macdonald refuses to give up his fight. He has suffered violence and discrimination at the hands of fellow Ghanaians for years, ever since people started suspecting that he might be gay.
At around the age of eighteen, while attending pastorial school, Macdonald started feeling attracted to men. "I was brought up to believe that it was against God's law and I thought, how can you, as a Christian, feel this way? I prayed for several months and years, that how I felt about myself would change, but I realized that it wasn't going to change."
Hopeless, Macdonald was thinking of taking his own life when he met someone who helped him deal with his feelings of frustration and despair. "I confided in a friend and he told me that he had felt the same way, for years, and that I was not an evil person."
Encouraged by the confirmation that he was not alone, Macdonald abandoned his suicide plan and instead began working to protect gay rights in Ghana.
Now a human rights activist with the gay and lesbian association of Ghana, Macdonald wants society's attitude towards gays and lesbians to change. "I think it is possible. If two religious groups are living together, then it is possible for two types of people to also live together."
But there is a significant difference. It is not against the law to practice different religions. It is illegal, however, to take part in sexual activities that are not intended for procreation. Article 104 of the criminal code prohibits unnatural carnal knowledge.
That means that gay and lesbian sex is punishable by law, even when it is done in the privacy of your own home. This, says one Ghanaian lawyer, who wishes to remain unidentified, is in direct violation of the constitution, as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which has been ratified by Ghana. She is using this ICCPR as a means of protecting her client, who was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for having sex with another man.
The covenant states that, "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence." "Ghana, in ratifying that covenant, is bound to implement its provisions," she says.
She claims that the rights to privacy, a private life and not to be discriminated against on the grounds of sex or sexual orientation are fundamental human rights and freedoms inherent in a democracy.
This is the first case of this kind she has worked on, and she admits that most of her colleagues wouldn't represent a gay client. "The attitude is very difficult in this society," she says. "I think religion has a lot to do with it."
Macdonald agrees that the strong belief in Christianity in Ghana made dealing with his sexual orientation that much harder, but eventually, he was able to reconcile the two aspects of his life. "I re-examined my life, and thought that I would combine the two," he says.
"I realized that what I was taught when growing up wasn't the truth; this perception people are having about what God did and what God wants, about being gay and being Christian."
Macdonald says he prays and goes to church, and refutes the idea that because one is gay, it is not possible to be a good Christian. "Christianity is a relationship between man and God."
His opinion is not necessarily popular among other Christians, but years of discrimination have taught him not to rely on other people's opinions about his private life. "My advice to others would be that when you are coming to accept your sexuality and you feel alone, know that you are not alone. There are hundreds of people feeling the way you are feeling, all over the world."
Attack
On 2 November 2006,
a group of journalists covering the trial of suspected drug criminals in an Accra regional court were threatened and insulted by sympathisers for taking photographs of the suspects.
Florence Gbolu, of the Accra-based independent daily newspaper "The Chronicle", told MFWA's correspondent that the sympathisers attacked reporters when some of them took photos of the suspects while they were being whisked into a police van after the day's court session.
The journalist said the angry-looking supporters, including six well-built men, ordered them to surrender their cameras. The action of the supporters attracted a large crowd that caught the attention of court officials, including a High Court judge and police officers.
"Sensing danger, a police officer came to our rescue and escorted us to one of the empty courtrooms for a few minutes, before a High Judge escorted us out of the court premises," Gbolu added.
More than six journalists have been victims of attacks, intimidation and harassment in the wake of a series of cocaine scandals that rocked the country during the second half of 2006.
The MFWA is concerned about the persistent violations of freedom of expression and the rights of journalists by sympathisers of the suspected drug dealers. We reiterate our call for the security agencies to send a strong message to the criminals' supporters who carry out attacks on journalists. To let such criminal acts pass without consequence could give free reign to non-state actors to act with impunity.
The MFWA condemns these attacks and intimidation against journalists because they undermine democracy, restrict editorial independence and deny the public access to information by way of photographic images.
a group of journalists covering the trial of suspected drug criminals in an Accra regional court were threatened and insulted by sympathisers for taking photographs of the suspects.
Florence Gbolu, of the Accra-based independent daily newspaper "The Chronicle", told MFWA's correspondent that the sympathisers attacked reporters when some of them took photos of the suspects while they were being whisked into a police van after the day's court session.
The journalist said the angry-looking supporters, including six well-built men, ordered them to surrender their cameras. The action of the supporters attracted a large crowd that caught the attention of court officials, including a High Court judge and police officers.
"Sensing danger, a police officer came to our rescue and escorted us to one of the empty courtrooms for a few minutes, before a High Judge escorted us out of the court premises," Gbolu added.
More than six journalists have been victims of attacks, intimidation and harassment in the wake of a series of cocaine scandals that rocked the country during the second half of 2006.
The MFWA is concerned about the persistent violations of freedom of expression and the rights of journalists by sympathisers of the suspected drug dealers. We reiterate our call for the security agencies to send a strong message to the criminals' supporters who carry out attacks on journalists. To let such criminal acts pass without consequence could give free reign to non-state actors to act with impunity.
The MFWA condemns these attacks and intimidation against journalists because they undermine democracy, restrict editorial independence and deny the public access to information by way of photographic images.
Ghana: I Was Told We Were Going to Buy Engine Parts
January 18, 2007
Florence Gbolu
The prosecution of six persons being held on drug-related charges, yesterday witnessed a new twist when one of the prosecution witnesses, James Kingsley Nkoom, a Cook on the MV Benjamin vessel told an Accra Fast Track High Court that he and others were given orders to offload some packages in a waiting boat into the vessel on the high seas.
The witness told the court that he only became aware of the content to be cocaine when the vessel anchored on the break waters of the Tema Port. According to him this was after he had asked the Chief Engineer what the content of the packages were.
Explaining how they got to carry the said 77 parcels of cocaine into the country, witness indicated that he was called back onto the vessel by the third accused person Isaac Arhin to Takoradi, after he had left to mourn his dead wife.
He informed the court that on arrival at Takoradi Harbour on March 7 2006, he saw Isaac Arhin, Philip Kobina Bruce Arhin, Cui Xian Li, chipping and painting the vessel.
According to him, the next day after the captain and chief engineer had come to have their meals they were informed that the vessel was going for testing at Tema, where some engine parts would be purchased as well.
Continuing, Nkoom told the court presided over by Mr. Justice Anin Yeboah that after two weeks of sailing he went to enquire from the chief engineer where they were heading toward, since they were not in Tema but was told they were going to buy engine parts.
He informed the court further that a few days later, a boat stopped by their vessel (MV Benjamin) and they were instructed to offload some items in it into the vessel.
According to witness he asked Isaac Arhin the content and quantity of the items but he only told him of the quantity, which was 77 and not the content.
Witness told the court further that it took the vessel three weeks to get to the breakwaters of Tema where they laid anchor at about 1:30 a.m.
Witness, who disclosed that he went to sleep after the vessel had laid anchor, informed the court that he heard an unusual sound in the vessel, which he woke up to see.
According to him, he saw two canoes, one parked by the side of the vessel and the other going round the vessel with three persons, including the chief engineer and captain of the vessel armed with guns.
Additionally, witness averred that the parked canoe was being loaded with the packages they had gone to bring from the high seas.
Continuing, witness informed the court that it was upon enquiry from the chief engineer, while having his meal with the Captain that he got to know the content of the packages to be cocaine, adding that the chief engineer told him he was leaving for town to get more food into the vessel and would be back to take them to the main harbour.
The six, Joseph Kojo Dawson 34, Pak Bok Sil 46, Isaac Arhin 49, Philip Kobina Bruce Arhin 47, Cui Xian Li, 44 and Luo Jin Xing, 49 years of age are facing four various charges of narcotic drugs.
The accused persons, three Ghanaians, two Chinese and a Korean, are facing charges of use of property for narcotic offences, prohibited business relating to narcotics and possession of narcotic drugs without lawful authority.
The particulars of offence against the accused persons state that in February 2006 at Tema in the Greater Accra Region, indirectly without lawful authority and with the intention of facilitating an activity for the purpose of promoting an enterprise relating to narcotic drugs did allow one Asem Darkei (a.k.a. Sheriff) to use his vessel MV Benjamin to import 77 parcels each containing 30kg of cocaine into the county without license by the Minister of health.
Other particulars of offense are that the accused person, on December 15 and February 10 respectively without lawful authority did undertake an activity for the purpose of promoting an enterprise relating to narcotic drugs by repairing the MV Benjamin (a.k.a. Adede II) in readiness for use to sail from Takoradi to the high seas to convey 77 parcel each containing about 30 kg of cocaine to Tema.
he remaining are that without lawful authority the accused persons undertook an activity on April 27, this year at Tema and on the vessel MV Benjamin (a.k.a. Adede II) had in their possession without lawful authority one parcel containing thirty slabs of cocaine, each weighing about 1kg.
The witness went on to inform the court that at about 6 a.m. the next morning he saw a naval boat surround the vessel with Isaac Arhin coming to tell him them that the Navy officials wanted to see them.
The Navy official, according to witness, searched them and took them to the Fishing Harbour where the Narcotic Control Board (NACOB) officials were waiting, witness noted.
Florence Gbolu
The prosecution of six persons being held on drug-related charges, yesterday witnessed a new twist when one of the prosecution witnesses, James Kingsley Nkoom, a Cook on the MV Benjamin vessel told an Accra Fast Track High Court that he and others were given orders to offload some packages in a waiting boat into the vessel on the high seas.
The witness told the court that he only became aware of the content to be cocaine when the vessel anchored on the break waters of the Tema Port. According to him this was after he had asked the Chief Engineer what the content of the packages were.
Explaining how they got to carry the said 77 parcels of cocaine into the country, witness indicated that he was called back onto the vessel by the third accused person Isaac Arhin to Takoradi, after he had left to mourn his dead wife.
He informed the court that on arrival at Takoradi Harbour on March 7 2006, he saw Isaac Arhin, Philip Kobina Bruce Arhin, Cui Xian Li, chipping and painting the vessel.
According to him, the next day after the captain and chief engineer had come to have their meals they were informed that the vessel was going for testing at Tema, where some engine parts would be purchased as well.
Continuing, Nkoom told the court presided over by Mr. Justice Anin Yeboah that after two weeks of sailing he went to enquire from the chief engineer where they were heading toward, since they were not in Tema but was told they were going to buy engine parts.
He informed the court further that a few days later, a boat stopped by their vessel (MV Benjamin) and they were instructed to offload some items in it into the vessel.
According to witness he asked Isaac Arhin the content and quantity of the items but he only told him of the quantity, which was 77 and not the content.
Witness told the court further that it took the vessel three weeks to get to the breakwaters of Tema where they laid anchor at about 1:30 a.m.
Witness, who disclosed that he went to sleep after the vessel had laid anchor, informed the court that he heard an unusual sound in the vessel, which he woke up to see.
According to him, he saw two canoes, one parked by the side of the vessel and the other going round the vessel with three persons, including the chief engineer and captain of the vessel armed with guns.
Additionally, witness averred that the parked canoe was being loaded with the packages they had gone to bring from the high seas.
Continuing, witness informed the court that it was upon enquiry from the chief engineer, while having his meal with the Captain that he got to know the content of the packages to be cocaine, adding that the chief engineer told him he was leaving for town to get more food into the vessel and would be back to take them to the main harbour.
The six, Joseph Kojo Dawson 34, Pak Bok Sil 46, Isaac Arhin 49, Philip Kobina Bruce Arhin 47, Cui Xian Li, 44 and Luo Jin Xing, 49 years of age are facing four various charges of narcotic drugs.
The accused persons, three Ghanaians, two Chinese and a Korean, are facing charges of use of property for narcotic offences, prohibited business relating to narcotics and possession of narcotic drugs without lawful authority.
The particulars of offence against the accused persons state that in February 2006 at Tema in the Greater Accra Region, indirectly without lawful authority and with the intention of facilitating an activity for the purpose of promoting an enterprise relating to narcotic drugs did allow one Asem Darkei (a.k.a. Sheriff) to use his vessel MV Benjamin to import 77 parcels each containing 30kg of cocaine into the county without license by the Minister of health.
Other particulars of offense are that the accused person, on December 15 and February 10 respectively without lawful authority did undertake an activity for the purpose of promoting an enterprise relating to narcotic drugs by repairing the MV Benjamin (a.k.a. Adede II) in readiness for use to sail from Takoradi to the high seas to convey 77 parcel each containing about 30 kg of cocaine to Tema.
he remaining are that without lawful authority the accused persons undertook an activity on April 27, this year at Tema and on the vessel MV Benjamin (a.k.a. Adede II) had in their possession without lawful authority one parcel containing thirty slabs of cocaine, each weighing about 1kg.
The witness went on to inform the court that at about 6 a.m. the next morning he saw a naval boat surround the vessel with Isaac Arhin coming to tell him them that the Navy officials wanted to see them.
The Navy official, according to witness, searched them and took them to the Fishing Harbour where the Narcotic Control Board (NACOB) officials were waiting, witness noted.
"Bewitching Ghana's Children"
By Florence Gbolu
("Ghanaian Chronicle," January 11, 2006)
Her bones were broken, and she was sleeping in a blacked out room with goats and fowl. For eight years, young Augustina Ankomah never saw the sunrise nor set. She is an example of how some of Ghana's children can suffer from their family's unfounded belief in witchcraft. While some towns and regions in Ghana accuse older women of possessing witchcraft, some also inflict it on the girl child. Unknown to her family, Augustina had from birth suffered from Epilepsy; she became seriously sick at the age of six. Two years later, her father died. She was accused of being the cause of her father's death. Her mother could no longer afford to send her to the hospital and native doctors for treatment, so she locked her up in an old hut where the animals were kept. "My mother kept me in that hut because she said my sickness was infectious and I could infect it on my other siblings if I continued to live with them in the room. She said I was also a witch that was why after visiting various hospitals and herbalists I never got healed," Augustina, now 17, said. Many women and children go through this trauma when they suffer from long or strange illness. Augustina now can neither walk nor talk well because for that long period she spent with the animals she never spoke with anyone or exercised her body by walking about. Anytime she suffered an epileptic seizure, there was no one to attend to her. In fact, the only time she saw her mother was when she brought her something to eat and on the rare occasion she came to bath her. It was Edith de Vos and Alhaji Issaka of the Baobab Children's Foundation who eventually freed Augustina from her torture two years ago. On a routine call to Augustina's village of Kissi, they learned of a girl who was being locked away in a hut. Issaka found her lying down with twisted limbs, unkempt hair, and broken bones. "The only thing she did when I called out her name was to respond and raise her head which came along with her unkempt long hair. She could not walk, talk clearly, she looked very pale, weak and paralyzed," said Issaka. Ebenezer Aggrey, of the Commission for Human Rights and Justice (CHRAJ) in Cape Coast says that the belief in Witchcraft leads to many human rights violations like what happened to Augustina. According to Aggrey, lack of education and lack of scientific understanding are the major contributing factors. "We come from a society where for every mishap we become analytical. Causes must be found for everything that happens to us. Somebody must be blamed or reasons be given for something that happen to us or someone else," he thought. Aggrey himself is currently working on the case of another young girl, Patience Arhin, 12, also from Kissi, who stopped showing up for her classes in early December, 2005. Patience lived with her grandmother at that time. Her grandmother had complained that she was not selling as well as she used to in her bread business, and claimed that her money was disappearing. According to Patience, she over heard a man telling her grandmother that she and another girl in the house were possessed by witchcraft and held the key to people's prosperity in the village. Her family, believing Patience was a witch, brought her to a prayer camp to pray for her. In addition to the prayers, the camp pastor caned her as a way of casting the witchcraft out of her. "Whilst praying the girl told my grandmother and the pastor that I left my witchcraft behind at home and came to the church so as they prayed I possess nothing with me at that moment. The pastor and my grandmother dragged me outside and caned me. They also asked me to go home and bring it." According to Issaka and the Baobab Children's Foundation who also went to the aid of Patience, she was dragged home four times to bring out the witchcraft and anytime they went and came back the other girl told them she had left it at home. She was caned several times by the pastor and grandmother because her sister who 'confessed' they were witches told them she left her witchcraft behind at home anytime they got to the camp. Aggrey said in communities where superstition and illiteracy are rampant, the belief in witchcraft is further perpetuated by those who claim to be Christian pastors and use the belief in witchcraft to give themselves a just cause. CHRAJ took up the case when they realized there has been serious abuse of a child's human rights, and also violation of dignity which would make her suffer discrimination in her community. They are also working out ways of inviting the pastor down for interrogation. Aggrey went on to say that, when they went to speak with Patience, there was no way to prove that she is a witch, and that she was likely forced to the prayer camp, and into confession. Aggrey said the commission is now aiming to meet with pastors in the region to educate them on the law because Patience pastor is not the only one casting out witchcraft. "Formerly, it was the fetish priests and Malams who saw and cast out witches, but now it looks as if most of these pastors have taken out the work of these people. Many of the fetish priests and Malams do say this a lot," he pointed out. He also spoke on the impact most of the movies on the screens as doing more harm than good to uneducated citizens. He feels they always have to portray quick way of acquiring money or women performing dark crafts, and that these images have a great effect on people. Aggrey knows though, that changing this belief will be difficult. "It needs much knowledge and time to break away with the past."
("Ghanaian Chronicle," January 11, 2006)
Her bones were broken, and she was sleeping in a blacked out room with goats and fowl. For eight years, young Augustina Ankomah never saw the sunrise nor set. She is an example of how some of Ghana's children can suffer from their family's unfounded belief in witchcraft. While some towns and regions in Ghana accuse older women of possessing witchcraft, some also inflict it on the girl child. Unknown to her family, Augustina had from birth suffered from Epilepsy; she became seriously sick at the age of six. Two years later, her father died. She was accused of being the cause of her father's death. Her mother could no longer afford to send her to the hospital and native doctors for treatment, so she locked her up in an old hut where the animals were kept. "My mother kept me in that hut because she said my sickness was infectious and I could infect it on my other siblings if I continued to live with them in the room. She said I was also a witch that was why after visiting various hospitals and herbalists I never got healed," Augustina, now 17, said. Many women and children go through this trauma when they suffer from long or strange illness. Augustina now can neither walk nor talk well because for that long period she spent with the animals she never spoke with anyone or exercised her body by walking about. Anytime she suffered an epileptic seizure, there was no one to attend to her. In fact, the only time she saw her mother was when she brought her something to eat and on the rare occasion she came to bath her. It was Edith de Vos and Alhaji Issaka of the Baobab Children's Foundation who eventually freed Augustina from her torture two years ago. On a routine call to Augustina's village of Kissi, they learned of a girl who was being locked away in a hut. Issaka found her lying down with twisted limbs, unkempt hair, and broken bones. "The only thing she did when I called out her name was to respond and raise her head which came along with her unkempt long hair. She could not walk, talk clearly, she looked very pale, weak and paralyzed," said Issaka. Ebenezer Aggrey, of the Commission for Human Rights and Justice (CHRAJ) in Cape Coast says that the belief in Witchcraft leads to many human rights violations like what happened to Augustina. According to Aggrey, lack of education and lack of scientific understanding are the major contributing factors. "We come from a society where for every mishap we become analytical. Causes must be found for everything that happens to us. Somebody must be blamed or reasons be given for something that happen to us or someone else," he thought. Aggrey himself is currently working on the case of another young girl, Patience Arhin, 12, also from Kissi, who stopped showing up for her classes in early December, 2005. Patience lived with her grandmother at that time. Her grandmother had complained that she was not selling as well as she used to in her bread business, and claimed that her money was disappearing. According to Patience, she over heard a man telling her grandmother that she and another girl in the house were possessed by witchcraft and held the key to people's prosperity in the village. Her family, believing Patience was a witch, brought her to a prayer camp to pray for her. In addition to the prayers, the camp pastor caned her as a way of casting the witchcraft out of her. "Whilst praying the girl told my grandmother and the pastor that I left my witchcraft behind at home and came to the church so as they prayed I possess nothing with me at that moment. The pastor and my grandmother dragged me outside and caned me. They also asked me to go home and bring it." According to Issaka and the Baobab Children's Foundation who also went to the aid of Patience, she was dragged home four times to bring out the witchcraft and anytime they went and came back the other girl told them she had left it at home. She was caned several times by the pastor and grandmother because her sister who 'confessed' they were witches told them she left her witchcraft behind at home anytime they got to the camp. Aggrey said in communities where superstition and illiteracy are rampant, the belief in witchcraft is further perpetuated by those who claim to be Christian pastors and use the belief in witchcraft to give themselves a just cause. CHRAJ took up the case when they realized there has been serious abuse of a child's human rights, and also violation of dignity which would make her suffer discrimination in her community. They are also working out ways of inviting the pastor down for interrogation. Aggrey went on to say that, when they went to speak with Patience, there was no way to prove that she is a witch, and that she was likely forced to the prayer camp, and into confession. Aggrey said the commission is now aiming to meet with pastors in the region to educate them on the law because Patience pastor is not the only one casting out witchcraft. "Formerly, it was the fetish priests and Malams who saw and cast out witches, but now it looks as if most of these pastors have taken out the work of these people. Many of the fetish priests and Malams do say this a lot," he pointed out. He also spoke on the impact most of the movies on the screens as doing more harm than good to uneducated citizens. He feels they always have to portray quick way of acquiring money or women performing dark crafts, and that these images have a great effect on people. Aggrey knows though, that changing this belief will be difficult. "It needs much knowledge and time to break away with the past."
Policing Through Service With Integrity
August 9, 2006
By Florence Gbolu
THE SITUATION in which some members of the Ghana Police Service have been involved in avoidable civilian brutalities, torture, unprofessional weapon handling and other forms of professional misconduct, leading to gross
human rights violations and in some cases, questioning the image of the
police, is both worrying and debilitating.
In an interview with Mr. Prize F. Y. McApreko, Director of Amnesty
International, Ghana, he expressed concerned that, lack of respect for the Police has the capacity to threaten the rule of law.
He said it poisons the stream of trust and confidence that society reposes in the Police.
Mr. McApreko stated that the alienation felt by the community, general
public, and civil society organisations could starve the Police of the
much needed cooperation and information necessary to develop accurate
criminal intelligence and deny them the civil cooperation needed to
prevent, detect and combat crime effectively and swiftly.
He said if the status quo becomes characterised by impunity, thereby
ignoring Police abuses, then there is the likelihood that unpopular
traditional systems of justice in which people take the law into their own hands could emerge.
In his view, the Police should be seen to be representing public
authority, and should be seen as the main contact between the citizens and the state.
"Interestingly, the Police Service tends to be one unique institution that wields the prerogative of monopoly in the use of legitimate force, minimal force or call it reasonable force."
This delicate authority vested in the Police Officer, he said, makes the Officer carry out a prescribed duty within a framework of intrinsic
tension between the need to protect and maintain public order, which is
also critical and central to protecting human rights, and then on the
other hand, the obligation to show absolute respect for human rights in
the execution of his legitimate functions.
Mr. McApreko noted that whereas the Officer is on one hand an accredited agent of protecting the citizen's rights, safety and peace, again the Officer on the other hand, though in the same context, is necessarily exposed to the danger of violating human rights, yet it is
uncompromisingly important that the police positions him/herself in such an informed and responsible position that he/she offers service with integrity.
From this viewpoint, Mr. McApreko considers that a badly trained Police
Officer, poorly organised and ill-equipped, could constitute a potential threat to society.
However, he stressed that where the Police Officers have been re-trained,reformed, and have established a reputation for respecting the human rights of the very people they are policing, then would it build the public confidence and civic cooperation necessary to prevent and detect crime timely, especially now that crime is assuming sophisticated and dangerous dimensions each passing day.
He therefore urged the Police Service to purge itself of the characteristic militaristic aura in which the public sees it.
"With equal concern, I wish to advocate radical changes in the training
and conduct of our Police Officers such that human rights education
becomes an intrinsic part of their graduation. Other training must be
linked to the changes in the environment in which the Police operate."
To substantiate his concerns, Mr. McApreko recalled at least the
following: the tragic tale of how occupants of a Daewoo Tico taxi cab, who were suspected by the Police to be armed robbers, were shot dead in cold blood by some members of the Dansoman Police station, is an unfortunate example of an exercise in which unprofessional weapon handling was dramatised to the detriment of the Police Service.
"Some called it a massacre while others said it was a blood bath," he
said. "What was a common denominator was, in my opinion, that it was one of the goriest days in the history of policing in Ghana."
"On this dark dawn of 21st April 2006, the silence of the dawn was
shattered, not by a coup d'etat, but by a policing drama in which caution had been thrown to the wind, responsibility left for the dogs,
circumspection painfully betrayed and integrity disintegrated!
In one reckless moment, four people had lost their lives - lives, which
can never be replaced, nor compensated for by any amount of money, regret, apologies, or reparation.
This saga compelled the Director of Amnesty International Ghana to hold
the view that under no circumstances should the Police over-simplify
issues in order to justify such heinous human rights abuses because life is too precious and too irreversible to be lost in such a fashion
characteristic of movies.
Ghanaians would once again remember another bizarre incident which
detracted heavily from the integrity and otherwise good name of the Ghana Police, lack of caution had been exemplified in the case of a mistaken identity which led to the shooting of a 26 year old fashion designer who was said to have gone out of his home with a dog to assist in arresting robbers.
When a Police Officer is not shooting for self-defence, when his or her
life is in danger, Mr. McApreko thinks that shooting to immobilise a
suspect is the preferred option.
Let not forget the story in Winneba, where a 25-year-old carpenter was
gunned down in May 2006 at the hands of the Police on suspicion of being an armed robber.
The Police claimed that he died as a result of gunshot wounds on his leg, but when his body was examined at the mortuary, it was discovered that there was a wound on his head.
Interestingly, the family had it that when they insisted that a
post-mortem be conducted, to find out how many gun shot wounds the
deceased had sustained, the Police were demanding five hundred thousand
Cedis (¢500,000.00) as the cost of the post-mortem, which would be
conducted by their doctor in Winneba.
Mr. McApreko again recalled another situation in May 2006, this time in
Juapong, where some members of the Police Service were said to have
"scored another human rights abuse" by detaining a suspect for three days refusing him bail, contrary to what the constitution prescribes.
He said it does not surprise him, when a group of Police Officers drawn
from various stations in Ghana at the end of a basic police skills
training in Accra, described the prevailing methods of police training as inadequate and so cannot effectively combat sophisticated crime.
The current cocaine saga, in which several Senior Police Officers have
been implicated, is yet another blow to the already embattled image of the Ghana Police Service, says Mr. McApreko.
"We must however, not allow it to blight us from the innumerable human
rights violations perpetrated by the Police."
In furtherance of all these, he said the Police Authorities must not only make it publicly and abundantly clear but in swift and exemplary practice,as well, that Police misconduct is both unjustifiable and unacceptable.
He however urged that the Police ought to lift up its game so as to
substantiate the trust and confidence of the people.
Since without the Police, society is not safe.
However, the needed safety is contained in an upright and humanrights-friendly policing.
By Florence Gbolu
THE SITUATION in which some members of the Ghana Police Service have been involved in avoidable civilian brutalities, torture, unprofessional weapon handling and other forms of professional misconduct, leading to gross
human rights violations and in some cases, questioning the image of the
police, is both worrying and debilitating.
In an interview with Mr. Prize F. Y. McApreko, Director of Amnesty
International, Ghana, he expressed concerned that, lack of respect for the Police has the capacity to threaten the rule of law.
He said it poisons the stream of trust and confidence that society reposes in the Police.
Mr. McApreko stated that the alienation felt by the community, general
public, and civil society organisations could starve the Police of the
much needed cooperation and information necessary to develop accurate
criminal intelligence and deny them the civil cooperation needed to
prevent, detect and combat crime effectively and swiftly.
He said if the status quo becomes characterised by impunity, thereby
ignoring Police abuses, then there is the likelihood that unpopular
traditional systems of justice in which people take the law into their own hands could emerge.
In his view, the Police should be seen to be representing public
authority, and should be seen as the main contact between the citizens and the state.
"Interestingly, the Police Service tends to be one unique institution that wields the prerogative of monopoly in the use of legitimate force, minimal force or call it reasonable force."
This delicate authority vested in the Police Officer, he said, makes the Officer carry out a prescribed duty within a framework of intrinsic
tension between the need to protect and maintain public order, which is
also critical and central to protecting human rights, and then on the
other hand, the obligation to show absolute respect for human rights in
the execution of his legitimate functions.
Mr. McApreko noted that whereas the Officer is on one hand an accredited agent of protecting the citizen's rights, safety and peace, again the Officer on the other hand, though in the same context, is necessarily exposed to the danger of violating human rights, yet it is
uncompromisingly important that the police positions him/herself in such an informed and responsible position that he/she offers service with integrity.
From this viewpoint, Mr. McApreko considers that a badly trained Police
Officer, poorly organised and ill-equipped, could constitute a potential threat to society.
However, he stressed that where the Police Officers have been re-trained,reformed, and have established a reputation for respecting the human rights of the very people they are policing, then would it build the public confidence and civic cooperation necessary to prevent and detect crime timely, especially now that crime is assuming sophisticated and dangerous dimensions each passing day.
He therefore urged the Police Service to purge itself of the characteristic militaristic aura in which the public sees it.
"With equal concern, I wish to advocate radical changes in the training
and conduct of our Police Officers such that human rights education
becomes an intrinsic part of their graduation. Other training must be
linked to the changes in the environment in which the Police operate."
To substantiate his concerns, Mr. McApreko recalled at least the
following: the tragic tale of how occupants of a Daewoo Tico taxi cab, who were suspected by the Police to be armed robbers, were shot dead in cold blood by some members of the Dansoman Police station, is an unfortunate example of an exercise in which unprofessional weapon handling was dramatised to the detriment of the Police Service.
"Some called it a massacre while others said it was a blood bath," he
said. "What was a common denominator was, in my opinion, that it was one of the goriest days in the history of policing in Ghana."
"On this dark dawn of 21st April 2006, the silence of the dawn was
shattered, not by a coup d'etat, but by a policing drama in which caution had been thrown to the wind, responsibility left for the dogs,
circumspection painfully betrayed and integrity disintegrated!
In one reckless moment, four people had lost their lives - lives, which
can never be replaced, nor compensated for by any amount of money, regret, apologies, or reparation.
This saga compelled the Director of Amnesty International Ghana to hold
the view that under no circumstances should the Police over-simplify
issues in order to justify such heinous human rights abuses because life is too precious and too irreversible to be lost in such a fashion
characteristic of movies.
Ghanaians would once again remember another bizarre incident which
detracted heavily from the integrity and otherwise good name of the Ghana Police, lack of caution had been exemplified in the case of a mistaken identity which led to the shooting of a 26 year old fashion designer who was said to have gone out of his home with a dog to assist in arresting robbers.
When a Police Officer is not shooting for self-defence, when his or her
life is in danger, Mr. McApreko thinks that shooting to immobilise a
suspect is the preferred option.
Let not forget the story in Winneba, where a 25-year-old carpenter was
gunned down in May 2006 at the hands of the Police on suspicion of being an armed robber.
The Police claimed that he died as a result of gunshot wounds on his leg, but when his body was examined at the mortuary, it was discovered that there was a wound on his head.
Interestingly, the family had it that when they insisted that a
post-mortem be conducted, to find out how many gun shot wounds the
deceased had sustained, the Police were demanding five hundred thousand
Cedis (¢500,000.00) as the cost of the post-mortem, which would be
conducted by their doctor in Winneba.
Mr. McApreko again recalled another situation in May 2006, this time in
Juapong, where some members of the Police Service were said to have
"scored another human rights abuse" by detaining a suspect for three days refusing him bail, contrary to what the constitution prescribes.
He said it does not surprise him, when a group of Police Officers drawn
from various stations in Ghana at the end of a basic police skills
training in Accra, described the prevailing methods of police training as inadequate and so cannot effectively combat sophisticated crime.
The current cocaine saga, in which several Senior Police Officers have
been implicated, is yet another blow to the already embattled image of the Ghana Police Service, says Mr. McApreko.
"We must however, not allow it to blight us from the innumerable human
rights violations perpetrated by the Police."
In furtherance of all these, he said the Police Authorities must not only make it publicly and abundantly clear but in swift and exemplary practice,as well, that Police misconduct is both unjustifiable and unacceptable.
He however urged that the Police ought to lift up its game so as to
substantiate the trust and confidence of the people.
Since without the Police, society is not safe.
However, the needed safety is contained in an upright and humanrights-friendly policing.
A hut on the other side of the world
DAVE MAASS writes on himself and Florence Gbolu
Dave Maass sits in a "fetish shrine" in Ghanawith Florence Gbolu and Oliveir Assanin,
Dave Maass of Scottsdale is a volunteer with Journalists for Human Rights and an anthropological researcher at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. Here is his story of his work in Ghana with journalist Florence Gbolu.At this moment, I feel extremely out of place. Right now, I'm just a big, gangly, white American Jew with thick glasses hunching topless on a bench in the Nyigble "fetish shrine." My bottom half is wrapped in a length of loudly colorful fabric and my bare feet are playing nervously in the sandy floor. The shrine is a small enclosure surrounding a smaller hut; inside is some sort of idol to one of their gods, and only the priest is allowed to visit it.This open-aired room is quickly filling up with old women. Some are very large, others as thin and knotted as a twig. Many of them can no longer be bothered to keep their robes covering their breasts. There are few men, mostly very young. It's getting crowded.As a JHR volunteer, I'm working with The Ghanaian Chronicle, a.k.a. "The Spear of the Nation," Ghana's most popular independent newspaper. I'm supposed to mentor, advise and work side-by-side with a Ghanaian journalist, in this case Florence Gbolu, who's sitting beside me with her notepad. The idea is to help the Ghanaian media more effectively cover human-rights abuses. Potentially, this will all end up on the weekly "Social Justice" page I'm charged with editing.Whether human rights abuses are occurring in this fetish shrine is still up in the air. The Paramount Chief of the area secured us an invite to this ceremony (it cost us three bottles of gin - one for the chief, two for the shrine's priest). What we've been told: A woman has been kept in a room off to the side of the shrine for three months. She has not left this room, has not seen the sun, has not changed her clothes. Normally, this would be inhumane imprisonment. In this case, however, the woman volunteered. I'm not exactly sure why.Everyone is speaking the local Ewe language. Florence's mother was born not too far from the shrine, and Florence speaks Ewe fluently. I'm her journalistic adviser, but as an anthropologist I'm expecting her to be my guide to this ceremony. I'm expecting her to explain the legends and meanings around each act. But no. She knows almost as much about these rituals as I - a Jew who practices when I'm back in Scottsdale for the holidays - know about those of Chasidic Jews in Tzfat, Israel.And so we both sit there in somewhat stunned silence as women and young men to the left and right of us begin thrashing in trances to the thumping beat of drums and priestess songs, as twin roosters are sacrificed and left to their last flops a few feet from where we're sitting.Finally, when Florence turns to me, it's to whisper what she's just been told by one of the chief's men: A woman is about to be lashed. I don't quite understand why she's so excited."We have a story!" she says.Oh, right: We're human-rights journalists."We do," I agree, with a discreet smile.
Dave Maass sits in a "fetish shrine" in Ghanawith Florence Gbolu and Oliveir Assanin,
Dave Maass of Scottsdale is a volunteer with Journalists for Human Rights and an anthropological researcher at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. Here is his story of his work in Ghana with journalist Florence Gbolu.At this moment, I feel extremely out of place. Right now, I'm just a big, gangly, white American Jew with thick glasses hunching topless on a bench in the Nyigble "fetish shrine." My bottom half is wrapped in a length of loudly colorful fabric and my bare feet are playing nervously in the sandy floor. The shrine is a small enclosure surrounding a smaller hut; inside is some sort of idol to one of their gods, and only the priest is allowed to visit it.This open-aired room is quickly filling up with old women. Some are very large, others as thin and knotted as a twig. Many of them can no longer be bothered to keep their robes covering their breasts. There are few men, mostly very young. It's getting crowded.As a JHR volunteer, I'm working with The Ghanaian Chronicle, a.k.a. "The Spear of the Nation," Ghana's most popular independent newspaper. I'm supposed to mentor, advise and work side-by-side with a Ghanaian journalist, in this case Florence Gbolu, who's sitting beside me with her notepad. The idea is to help the Ghanaian media more effectively cover human-rights abuses. Potentially, this will all end up on the weekly "Social Justice" page I'm charged with editing.Whether human rights abuses are occurring in this fetish shrine is still up in the air. The Paramount Chief of the area secured us an invite to this ceremony (it cost us three bottles of gin - one for the chief, two for the shrine's priest). What we've been told: A woman has been kept in a room off to the side of the shrine for three months. She has not left this room, has not seen the sun, has not changed her clothes. Normally, this would be inhumane imprisonment. In this case, however, the woman volunteered. I'm not exactly sure why.Everyone is speaking the local Ewe language. Florence's mother was born not too far from the shrine, and Florence speaks Ewe fluently. I'm her journalistic adviser, but as an anthropologist I'm expecting her to be my guide to this ceremony. I'm expecting her to explain the legends and meanings around each act. But no. She knows almost as much about these rituals as I - a Jew who practices when I'm back in Scottsdale for the holidays - know about those of Chasidic Jews in Tzfat, Israel.And so we both sit there in somewhat stunned silence as women and young men to the left and right of us begin thrashing in trances to the thumping beat of drums and priestess songs, as twin roosters are sacrificed and left to their last flops a few feet from where we're sitting.Finally, when Florence turns to me, it's to whisper what she's just been told by one of the chief's men: A woman is about to be lashed. I don't quite understand why she's so excited."We have a story!" she says.Oh, right: We're human-rights journalists."We do," I agree, with a discreet smile.
Documented revelations in court battle
Monday, January 29, 2007
By Florence Gbolu
• Mr. Richmond Aggrey (left), • Some of the documments tendered in evidence (left)
MR. DAVID ANDREAS HESSE, founding Company Secretary, and shareholder of the multi-billion dollar telecommunications behemoth now flying the MTN flag, has demonstrated in court papers that a fellow Ghanaian shareholder and Vice Chairman of Scancom from Benso, near Swedru, and himself, a full blooded Ghanaian from Ga Mashie, together secured the operating licence for Scancom (now Areeba).
He submitted that, to top the bill, he also secured the working capital for the Lebanese-owned company that has now turned round to plunge a double-edged scimitar deep into their ribs.
He was responding to an application filed by the CEO of Areeba, referring to their Shareholders Agreement, demanding a stay of proceedings to allow them to exercise a provision in the agreement to take the case outside the Ghanaian jurisdiction for arbitration.
“By Clause 13.5 of the Shareholders Agreement, the parties thereto, including the plaintiff herein have agreed to resolve all disputes arising from the agreement by arbitration in London,” CEO Goshen pleaded in a sworn affidavit.
Mr. Hesse however, filed last week that, at the time, Scancom was a start-up company and did not have sufficient funds to meet its working capital needs to enable it operate as intended.
“All the shareholders started sourcing for funds both in Ghana and abroad without avail until Mr. Richmond Aggrey, a member of the Board of Directors of 2nd Defendant company (Scancom Limited), made representations to Merchant Bank (Ghana) Limited for a credit facility for 2nd Defendant (Scancom) which was granted,” Hesse stated in his affidavit in support of his motion for an interlocutory injunction and contesting factual inaccuracies tendered by Scancom in their defence at the commercial court in Accra within the same week.
He noted further that as security and precondition for the grant of the said credit facility, Merchant Bank (Ghana) Limited requested Scancom to provide Personal Guarantees of three (3) persons with assets in Ghana.
According to Hesse, the Directors and Shareholders of Scancom approached several people in the business community in Ghana to assist by providing the said Personal Guarantees but nobody was willing to offer his Personal Guarantee for the company, which had then just started operations and had a handful of subscribers on its Network.
The affidavit stated further that representations were made by the said Mr. Richmond Aggrey to Merchant Bank (Ghana) Limited and the Personal Guarantees were provided by Messrs Jamal Ramadan, Ghassan Queida both non-resident Lebanese nationals and he, the plaintiff.
Noting further, the plaintiff said after the facility was granted by Merchant Bank (Ghana) Limited, the Company was then able to operate and generate revenues and loans from various banks in Ghana.
“It is my belief that if I had not provided my Personal Guarantee, Merchant Bank (Ghana) Limited would not have granted the credit facility to 2nd Defendant and that would have been the end of the dream of all the shareholders of 2nd Defendant to set up and operate a mobile telephony network in Ghana,” plaintiff’s affidavit read.
Mr. Hesse additionally stated that “It is my further belief that if the business of 2nd Defendant had not been successful and 2nd Defendant had defaulted in the payment of the loan facility, Mr. Jamal Ramadan and Mr. Ghassan Queida as non-resident Lebanese nationals resident in Lebanon would have left me alone in Ghana with my assets at the mercy of Merchant Bank (Ghana) Limited.”
The plaintiff’s affidavit went on to state that legal services for the company had at all times since the time Investcom Consortium Holdings S.A. joined the company as a shareholder, been provided by his Law Firm, Hesse & Hesse (which until March 1 2006 was known as Hesse and Larsey) and never by himself in his individual capacity.
According to him, throughout his dealings with Scancom, he separated his personal interest and investment as an individual shareholder in the company from legal services rendered by the Law Firm of Hesse & Larsey such that whenever a cheque is issued in the name of Hesse & Larsey meant for him in his individual capacity as shareholder of the company, he always insisted that the cheques be re-issued in his personal name.
He indicated that in 2005, Scancom Limited made payment to Hesse & Larsey for legal services performed at a time that the company was still paying him a monthly sum of One Thousand, Five Hundred United States Dollars (US$1,500.00) on account of his dividends.
Although Investcom Consortium Holding S.A., had always claimed that it had advanced loans to Scancom, neither it nor Scancom had shown to the Board of Directors or other Shareholders of 2nd Defendant any official document from any Government Agency in Ghana approving and confirming the loans purportedly advanced by the two defendants.
Stating further, plaintiff indicated that he had never met with either of the defendants or Mr. Ahmad Farrouk to go into account.
Mr. Hesse added that he had been calling for accounts between Scancom Limited and Investcom Consortium Holding S.A, but this they had consistently refused to do.
Plaintiff mentioned that in 1999 there were serious problems between Ghana Telecom and all the mobile telecommunications operators, (2nd Defendant, Celltel now Kasapa and Mobitel now Tigo) and in order to present a united front, the mobile telecommunications network operators formed a loose association known as Ghana Mobile Networks Association.
According to plaintiff, when the problem could not be solved, the mobile telecommunications network operators agreed to file a Suit in their individual names against Ghana Telecom.
Mr. Ahmad Farroukh, then Managing Director of Scancom, informed the other operators that the lawyer to file the Suit for Scancom was their new lawyer Mr. Benson Nutsupui of the Law Firm of Kuenyehia & Co. Additionally, plaintiff stated in his affidavit that Mr. Ahmad Farroukh later informed him that the other mobile telecommunications operators advised against the new lawyer’s engagement to handle the matter for Scancom because he did not have the relevant experience in the matter and that the other operators had recommended that the Law Firm of Hesse & Larsey who have relevant experience in the matter should file the Suit on behalf of 2nd Defendant.
‘Mr. Ahmad Farrouk later informed me that Mr. Benson Nutsupui had been assigned another role in the conduct of the case in Court.
Prior to the Suit by Scancom against Ghana Telecom in 1999 as aforesaid, it was Mr. Benson Nutsupui who was filing Suits and representing the 2nd Defendant as per Exhibit 'DAH24' being one of such Suits filed by Mr. Benson Nutsukpui.
I have attached hereto, e-mail correspondence between Mr. Trygve Tamburstuen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of 2nd Defendant and myself on the resignation of the Directors of 2nd Defendant as Exhibits 'DAH25'.
Since 2nd Defendant engaged Mr. Benson Nutsukpui, as aforesaid, it is Mr. Benson Nutsukpui who has been attending all meetings at the National Communications Authority, other Government Agencies and meeting with editors of newspapers.
According to recent publications in the media, Mr. Benson Nutsukpui and Mr. Ahmad Farroukh met with the Editor-In-Chief and Chief Executive Officer of The Chronicle Newspaper at the Golden Tulip Hotel on the 5th day of July, 2006 to hold discussions, aspects of which were published in the said newspaper on matters pertaining to the business of 2nd Defendant and myself.
On the 10th day of October, 2006 Mr. Brent Goshen and Mr. Ziad met with me at the offices of the Law Firm of Hesse & Hesse and demanded the back-dated Invoices which I had refused to give to 2nd Defendant and I informed them I was not going to give them any back-dated Invoices.
On the 5th day of October, 2006 2nd Defendant instructed One (1) of its Accounts Managers to call me to demand the back dated Invoices which I refused as per e- mail correspondence between Mr. Ziad and myself marked as Exhibits 'DAH26' DAH27', 'DAH28' and 'DAH29'.
I have never discussed any property acquisition with 2nd Defendant or Mr. Ahmad Farrouk or at all for which I require money from 1st Defendant or 2nd Defendant.
I have attached hereto and marked as Exhibit 'DAH30' Search Report from the Cyprus Company Registry to show the date of incorporation of the 2nd Defendant's subsidiary in Cyprus and other matters relating thereto and other documents marked as Exhibits 'DAH31', 'DAH32' and 'DAH34' to show that between August and September 2003, discussions between Mr. Ahmad Farroukh and myself had been on 1st and 2nd Defendants’ investment in Cyprus and no more.’
By Florence Gbolu
• Mr. Richmond Aggrey (left), • Some of the documments tendered in evidence (left)
MR. DAVID ANDREAS HESSE, founding Company Secretary, and shareholder of the multi-billion dollar telecommunications behemoth now flying the MTN flag, has demonstrated in court papers that a fellow Ghanaian shareholder and Vice Chairman of Scancom from Benso, near Swedru, and himself, a full blooded Ghanaian from Ga Mashie, together secured the operating licence for Scancom (now Areeba).
He submitted that, to top the bill, he also secured the working capital for the Lebanese-owned company that has now turned round to plunge a double-edged scimitar deep into their ribs.
He was responding to an application filed by the CEO of Areeba, referring to their Shareholders Agreement, demanding a stay of proceedings to allow them to exercise a provision in the agreement to take the case outside the Ghanaian jurisdiction for arbitration.
“By Clause 13.5 of the Shareholders Agreement, the parties thereto, including the plaintiff herein have agreed to resolve all disputes arising from the agreement by arbitration in London,” CEO Goshen pleaded in a sworn affidavit.
Mr. Hesse however, filed last week that, at the time, Scancom was a start-up company and did not have sufficient funds to meet its working capital needs to enable it operate as intended.
“All the shareholders started sourcing for funds both in Ghana and abroad without avail until Mr. Richmond Aggrey, a member of the Board of Directors of 2nd Defendant company (Scancom Limited), made representations to Merchant Bank (Ghana) Limited for a credit facility for 2nd Defendant (Scancom) which was granted,” Hesse stated in his affidavit in support of his motion for an interlocutory injunction and contesting factual inaccuracies tendered by Scancom in their defence at the commercial court in Accra within the same week.
He noted further that as security and precondition for the grant of the said credit facility, Merchant Bank (Ghana) Limited requested Scancom to provide Personal Guarantees of three (3) persons with assets in Ghana.
According to Hesse, the Directors and Shareholders of Scancom approached several people in the business community in Ghana to assist by providing the said Personal Guarantees but nobody was willing to offer his Personal Guarantee for the company, which had then just started operations and had a handful of subscribers on its Network.
The affidavit stated further that representations were made by the said Mr. Richmond Aggrey to Merchant Bank (Ghana) Limited and the Personal Guarantees were provided by Messrs Jamal Ramadan, Ghassan Queida both non-resident Lebanese nationals and he, the plaintiff.
Noting further, the plaintiff said after the facility was granted by Merchant Bank (Ghana) Limited, the Company was then able to operate and generate revenues and loans from various banks in Ghana.
“It is my belief that if I had not provided my Personal Guarantee, Merchant Bank (Ghana) Limited would not have granted the credit facility to 2nd Defendant and that would have been the end of the dream of all the shareholders of 2nd Defendant to set up and operate a mobile telephony network in Ghana,” plaintiff’s affidavit read.
Mr. Hesse additionally stated that “It is my further belief that if the business of 2nd Defendant had not been successful and 2nd Defendant had defaulted in the payment of the loan facility, Mr. Jamal Ramadan and Mr. Ghassan Queida as non-resident Lebanese nationals resident in Lebanon would have left me alone in Ghana with my assets at the mercy of Merchant Bank (Ghana) Limited.”
The plaintiff’s affidavit went on to state that legal services for the company had at all times since the time Investcom Consortium Holdings S.A. joined the company as a shareholder, been provided by his Law Firm, Hesse & Hesse (which until March 1 2006 was known as Hesse and Larsey) and never by himself in his individual capacity.
According to him, throughout his dealings with Scancom, he separated his personal interest and investment as an individual shareholder in the company from legal services rendered by the Law Firm of Hesse & Larsey such that whenever a cheque is issued in the name of Hesse & Larsey meant for him in his individual capacity as shareholder of the company, he always insisted that the cheques be re-issued in his personal name.
He indicated that in 2005, Scancom Limited made payment to Hesse & Larsey for legal services performed at a time that the company was still paying him a monthly sum of One Thousand, Five Hundred United States Dollars (US$1,500.00) on account of his dividends.
Although Investcom Consortium Holding S.A., had always claimed that it had advanced loans to Scancom, neither it nor Scancom had shown to the Board of Directors or other Shareholders of 2nd Defendant any official document from any Government Agency in Ghana approving and confirming the loans purportedly advanced by the two defendants.
Stating further, plaintiff indicated that he had never met with either of the defendants or Mr. Ahmad Farrouk to go into account.
Mr. Hesse added that he had been calling for accounts between Scancom Limited and Investcom Consortium Holding S.A, but this they had consistently refused to do.
Plaintiff mentioned that in 1999 there were serious problems between Ghana Telecom and all the mobile telecommunications operators, (2nd Defendant, Celltel now Kasapa and Mobitel now Tigo) and in order to present a united front, the mobile telecommunications network operators formed a loose association known as Ghana Mobile Networks Association.
According to plaintiff, when the problem could not be solved, the mobile telecommunications network operators agreed to file a Suit in their individual names against Ghana Telecom.
Mr. Ahmad Farroukh, then Managing Director of Scancom, informed the other operators that the lawyer to file the Suit for Scancom was their new lawyer Mr. Benson Nutsupui of the Law Firm of Kuenyehia & Co. Additionally, plaintiff stated in his affidavit that Mr. Ahmad Farroukh later informed him that the other mobile telecommunications operators advised against the new lawyer’s engagement to handle the matter for Scancom because he did not have the relevant experience in the matter and that the other operators had recommended that the Law Firm of Hesse & Larsey who have relevant experience in the matter should file the Suit on behalf of 2nd Defendant.
‘Mr. Ahmad Farrouk later informed me that Mr. Benson Nutsupui had been assigned another role in the conduct of the case in Court.
Prior to the Suit by Scancom against Ghana Telecom in 1999 as aforesaid, it was Mr. Benson Nutsupui who was filing Suits and representing the 2nd Defendant as per Exhibit 'DAH24' being one of such Suits filed by Mr. Benson Nutsukpui.
I have attached hereto, e-mail correspondence between Mr. Trygve Tamburstuen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of 2nd Defendant and myself on the resignation of the Directors of 2nd Defendant as Exhibits 'DAH25'.
Since 2nd Defendant engaged Mr. Benson Nutsukpui, as aforesaid, it is Mr. Benson Nutsukpui who has been attending all meetings at the National Communications Authority, other Government Agencies and meeting with editors of newspapers.
According to recent publications in the media, Mr. Benson Nutsukpui and Mr. Ahmad Farroukh met with the Editor-In-Chief and Chief Executive Officer of The Chronicle Newspaper at the Golden Tulip Hotel on the 5th day of July, 2006 to hold discussions, aspects of which were published in the said newspaper on matters pertaining to the business of 2nd Defendant and myself.
On the 10th day of October, 2006 Mr. Brent Goshen and Mr. Ziad met with me at the offices of the Law Firm of Hesse & Hesse and demanded the back-dated Invoices which I had refused to give to 2nd Defendant and I informed them I was not going to give them any back-dated Invoices.
On the 5th day of October, 2006 2nd Defendant instructed One (1) of its Accounts Managers to call me to demand the back dated Invoices which I refused as per e- mail correspondence between Mr. Ziad and myself marked as Exhibits 'DAH26' DAH27', 'DAH28' and 'DAH29'.
I have never discussed any property acquisition with 2nd Defendant or Mr. Ahmad Farrouk or at all for which I require money from 1st Defendant or 2nd Defendant.
I have attached hereto and marked as Exhibit 'DAH30' Search Report from the Cyprus Company Registry to show the date of incorporation of the 2nd Defendant's subsidiary in Cyprus and other matters relating thereto and other documents marked as Exhibits 'DAH31', 'DAH32' and 'DAH34' to show that between August and September 2003, discussions between Mr. Ahmad Farroukh and myself had been on 1st and 2nd Defendants’ investment in Cyprus and no more.’
Fighting human trafficking: Ghana's youngest victims
By Florence Gbolu
A year ago, the Government of Ghana passed a law that made it a crime to traffic in people - that is, to sell adults and children into a modern form of slavery. The Human Trafficking Act aims to prevent, reduce and punish human trafficking, and to rehabilitate and reintegrate people who are trafficked. To be able to achieve some of the goals set up in the Millennium Development Goal there is the need to combat these practices, especially when they target children. However, in this era of civilization and development, Ghanaian children, through no fault of their own, are still being given out or sold to people, being deprived of their rights to enjoy life to the fullest. These children often live in terrible conditions, working during unfavourable weather, eating non-nutritious foods, and wearing shabby clothes. Many grow up with no formal education or moral training, thereby leaving them illiterate and lacking discipline. The International Organization of Migration (IOM) is one organization working to fight this scourge and put the new Human Trafficking Act into practice in the country, especially among children working in fishing communities. Last week, the IOM held a workshop to help implementation partners in the community (including partner organizations and agencies and members of the media) to understand how the IOM helps trafficked children and how the partners could help in the organization's work. In December 2002, the IOM launched a programme on migration in three fishing communities, namely Yeji, Mfantesiman and North and South Tornu District, all falling on Volta-area lakeshores. The aim of this project was to fight the child trafficking situation in these various communities and rescue captured children. Together with its implementing partners, such as the Department of Social Welfare, Ghana Health Service, Ghana Education Service and the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, the IOM has been able to rescue over 500 children and reintegrate them into society. Kwasi Opoku Mensah, a programme officer at Friends for Human Development, one of the IOM's implementation partners, explained to Social Justice how the child-rescue program began. While working in his former job in the fisheries, Mr. Mensah said, a ban was made on the use of certain gears for fishing. To make sure that this law took effect, officers were brought in to secure the place. Whilst there, the officers noticed large number of children on the sea. After investigating, they realized that these little ones were trafficked. This they reported, and research began as to how the children found their way into such places. Since then, Mr. Mensah and his organization have helped rescue trafficked children. In partnership with the IOM, they have rescued about 537 over the past few years. The IOM's officers visit fishing communities and have meetings with chiefs to educate the communities on the Human Trafficking Act, and the dangers of using children in fishing. A lot of people do not know the crime they commit when they use these children to fish, the IOM said. The implementation officers inform the people in the community about the project and the need to release the children, after which, they are left to decide what to do. Later, the officers return to the community for response and begin to register these children whom the fishermen are ready to release. "Rescuing these children is not aimed at destroying the fishing business. These fishermen are supported with micro-finance compensation, which is often fishing nets, to enable them continue their work without the help of these children," said Mr. Mensah. After the children are rescued, they are camped at Yeji for month before they are brought down to Accra to be rehabilitated. They are then reunited with their parents if it is possible and in the child's best interest. People give out their children to these fishermen in return for monthly, quarterly or annual compensation. To enable them to solve or curb this menace, the IOM provides micro-finance assistance to parents of these rescued children to enable them start a business of their own and provide for their families. The implementing partners do follow-ups later on to ensure the people are using their benefits profitably. Mr. Mensah has a target to help rescue a majority of trafficked children from the area in the coming years. "Now that the law has been passed, I hope to involve both the law and IOM policy to rescue these children,"he said.
A year ago, the Government of Ghana passed a law that made it a crime to traffic in people - that is, to sell adults and children into a modern form of slavery. The Human Trafficking Act aims to prevent, reduce and punish human trafficking, and to rehabilitate and reintegrate people who are trafficked. To be able to achieve some of the goals set up in the Millennium Development Goal there is the need to combat these practices, especially when they target children. However, in this era of civilization and development, Ghanaian children, through no fault of their own, are still being given out or sold to people, being deprived of their rights to enjoy life to the fullest. These children often live in terrible conditions, working during unfavourable weather, eating non-nutritious foods, and wearing shabby clothes. Many grow up with no formal education or moral training, thereby leaving them illiterate and lacking discipline. The International Organization of Migration (IOM) is one organization working to fight this scourge and put the new Human Trafficking Act into practice in the country, especially among children working in fishing communities. Last week, the IOM held a workshop to help implementation partners in the community (including partner organizations and agencies and members of the media) to understand how the IOM helps trafficked children and how the partners could help in the organization's work. In December 2002, the IOM launched a programme on migration in three fishing communities, namely Yeji, Mfantesiman and North and South Tornu District, all falling on Volta-area lakeshores. The aim of this project was to fight the child trafficking situation in these various communities and rescue captured children. Together with its implementing partners, such as the Department of Social Welfare, Ghana Health Service, Ghana Education Service and the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, the IOM has been able to rescue over 500 children and reintegrate them into society. Kwasi Opoku Mensah, a programme officer at Friends for Human Development, one of the IOM's implementation partners, explained to Social Justice how the child-rescue program began. While working in his former job in the fisheries, Mr. Mensah said, a ban was made on the use of certain gears for fishing. To make sure that this law took effect, officers were brought in to secure the place. Whilst there, the officers noticed large number of children on the sea. After investigating, they realized that these little ones were trafficked. This they reported, and research began as to how the children found their way into such places. Since then, Mr. Mensah and his organization have helped rescue trafficked children. In partnership with the IOM, they have rescued about 537 over the past few years. The IOM's officers visit fishing communities and have meetings with chiefs to educate the communities on the Human Trafficking Act, and the dangers of using children in fishing. A lot of people do not know the crime they commit when they use these children to fish, the IOM said. The implementation officers inform the people in the community about the project and the need to release the children, after which, they are left to decide what to do. Later, the officers return to the community for response and begin to register these children whom the fishermen are ready to release. "Rescuing these children is not aimed at destroying the fishing business. These fishermen are supported with micro-finance compensation, which is often fishing nets, to enable them continue their work without the help of these children," said Mr. Mensah. After the children are rescued, they are camped at Yeji for month before they are brought down to Accra to be rehabilitated. They are then reunited with their parents if it is possible and in the child's best interest. People give out their children to these fishermen in return for monthly, quarterly or annual compensation. To enable them to solve or curb this menace, the IOM provides micro-finance assistance to parents of these rescued children to enable them start a business of their own and provide for their families. The implementing partners do follow-ups later on to ensure the people are using their benefits profitably. Mr. Mensah has a target to help rescue a majority of trafficked children from the area in the coming years. "Now that the law has been passed, I hope to involve both the law and IOM policy to rescue these children,"he said.
The need for non-custodial sentencing by our courts
By Florence Gbolu
ACCRA (The Chronicle, November 20, 2006)- When The 17-year-old boy wanted to speak to the Minister and his entourage, no one had any idea what he wanted to tell them. With courage, Eric Boafo laid to bare the big burden resting in his heart: “I’m serving a five-year jail term for stealing a fridge motor and other electrical appliances,” he said. “Please, the sentence imposed on me by a court in Winneba is too much and I cannot complete my sentence with regards to the existing conditions in the prison.” Boafo appealed to the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General's Office to mitigate his sentence. Leaders and representatives of agencies in the administration of criminal justice in the country, including the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) Ghana, the General Legal Council, the Prisons Council and Department of Social Welfare, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of the Interior also heard his appeal. The officials were visiting the Winneba Prisons to gain a first-hand knowledge about prison conditions as part of a workshop to finalize and adopt an action plan for non-custodial sentencing in Ghana. Eric, like many other prisoners in the Winneba and other prisons in the country, faced sentencing for his crime in an adult prison instead of a juvenile one. Born in 1988 and convicted in 2005, he said life at the Winneba prison was unbearable and pleaded to be removed from adult prison. While transfers of juvenile prisoners from adult prisons to appropriate juvenile facilities have increased, unsuitable incarceration of young people, as well as nursing mothers and pregnant women, remains a chronic problem. Critics say such prison sentences arrest all attempts at rehabilitation of inmates and have devastating effects on inmates in terms of logistics, living space, and sanitation and health services. The prison infrastructure in Ghana is currently overstrained and bursting at the seams, with severe overcrowding, poor ventilation and widespread malnutrition conditions conducive to the spread of communicable disease improper classification of prisoners. Touring the various rooms of the Winneba prison revealed that only few beds were available for some of the inmates. Some inmates sleep on blankets and towels in congested spaces available. The court, which sits above the prison, has leaky roofs and floors, making it impossible for inmates to stay in their cells when it rains overnight. In some areas, 18 prisoners occupy 10-by-12-foot cells with no beds. Blankets are laid on the floor, and a very small window provides the only ventilation. Cells that have beds appear a bit wider than the remand cells, but have only 14 beds to accommodate as many as 27 prisoners. Though not all the inmates had the chance to talk, those who did complained about how they had been languishing in cells without being sent to courts and how police prosecutors had misinterpreted some of their offences to them. The leader of the inmates, Wellington Yankson, complained about ventilation in the various cells and said due to this problem, most prisoners suffer from various skin infections. He complained also about the attitude of their relations, saying they hardly get any response from them whenever they write to them. The Chief Superintendent of Prisons (CSP), Jacob Teiko Tagoe, said the Winneba Prisons has a maximum capacity of 96, but now had 199 inmates, with number rising to 250. When CSP Tagoe was asked about the feeding fee of the inmates, he said the inmates were entitled to 4,000 cedis for a three square meal adding, "We try as much as possible to give them sliced size of fish twice a month." He complained about lack of accommodation for staff, this issue he said needed serious attention, as it is becoming a security threat to the increasing prison population. But some form of hope was given to these inmates when Mr. Kwame Osei-Prempeh, Deputy Attorney General and Minister for Justice, who said government raised concerns about their plight, and assured them that steps were being taken to ensure that various prison were decongested. At the workshop, the assembled organizations tried to answer the perennial question of where along the continuum of crime and punishment to fit the various types of offenders, offences and punishment and to ensure that a person who has not been convicted of a criminal offence shall not be treated as a convicted person and shall be kept separately from convicted persons. In most, but not all, criminal convictions, Ghanaian courts impose custodial sentences. However, non-custodial sentencing has been proposed for incarcerating offenders in some cases. The objectives of non-custodial sentences are often the same as for custodial sentences (with the exception of protecting society from violent repeat offenders), and include crime prevention, retribution and rehabilitation of offenders. These objectives are weighed against the economic and social cost to the nation of incarcerating offenders.
ACCRA (The Chronicle, November 20, 2006)- When The 17-year-old boy wanted to speak to the Minister and his entourage, no one had any idea what he wanted to tell them. With courage, Eric Boafo laid to bare the big burden resting in his heart: “I’m serving a five-year jail term for stealing a fridge motor and other electrical appliances,” he said. “Please, the sentence imposed on me by a court in Winneba is too much and I cannot complete my sentence with regards to the existing conditions in the prison.” Boafo appealed to the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General's Office to mitigate his sentence. Leaders and representatives of agencies in the administration of criminal justice in the country, including the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) Ghana, the General Legal Council, the Prisons Council and Department of Social Welfare, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of the Interior also heard his appeal. The officials were visiting the Winneba Prisons to gain a first-hand knowledge about prison conditions as part of a workshop to finalize and adopt an action plan for non-custodial sentencing in Ghana. Eric, like many other prisoners in the Winneba and other prisons in the country, faced sentencing for his crime in an adult prison instead of a juvenile one. Born in 1988 and convicted in 2005, he said life at the Winneba prison was unbearable and pleaded to be removed from adult prison. While transfers of juvenile prisoners from adult prisons to appropriate juvenile facilities have increased, unsuitable incarceration of young people, as well as nursing mothers and pregnant women, remains a chronic problem. Critics say such prison sentences arrest all attempts at rehabilitation of inmates and have devastating effects on inmates in terms of logistics, living space, and sanitation and health services. The prison infrastructure in Ghana is currently overstrained and bursting at the seams, with severe overcrowding, poor ventilation and widespread malnutrition conditions conducive to the spread of communicable disease improper classification of prisoners. Touring the various rooms of the Winneba prison revealed that only few beds were available for some of the inmates. Some inmates sleep on blankets and towels in congested spaces available. The court, which sits above the prison, has leaky roofs and floors, making it impossible for inmates to stay in their cells when it rains overnight. In some areas, 18 prisoners occupy 10-by-12-foot cells with no beds. Blankets are laid on the floor, and a very small window provides the only ventilation. Cells that have beds appear a bit wider than the remand cells, but have only 14 beds to accommodate as many as 27 prisoners. Though not all the inmates had the chance to talk, those who did complained about how they had been languishing in cells without being sent to courts and how police prosecutors had misinterpreted some of their offences to them. The leader of the inmates, Wellington Yankson, complained about ventilation in the various cells and said due to this problem, most prisoners suffer from various skin infections. He complained also about the attitude of their relations, saying they hardly get any response from them whenever they write to them. The Chief Superintendent of Prisons (CSP), Jacob Teiko Tagoe, said the Winneba Prisons has a maximum capacity of 96, but now had 199 inmates, with number rising to 250. When CSP Tagoe was asked about the feeding fee of the inmates, he said the inmates were entitled to 4,000 cedis for a three square meal adding, "We try as much as possible to give them sliced size of fish twice a month." He complained about lack of accommodation for staff, this issue he said needed serious attention, as it is becoming a security threat to the increasing prison population. But some form of hope was given to these inmates when Mr. Kwame Osei-Prempeh, Deputy Attorney General and Minister for Justice, who said government raised concerns about their plight, and assured them that steps were being taken to ensure that various prison were decongested. At the workshop, the assembled organizations tried to answer the perennial question of where along the continuum of crime and punishment to fit the various types of offenders, offences and punishment and to ensure that a person who has not been convicted of a criminal offence shall not be treated as a convicted person and shall be kept separately from convicted persons. In most, but not all, criminal convictions, Ghanaian courts impose custodial sentences. However, non-custodial sentencing has been proposed for incarcerating offenders in some cases. The objectives of non-custodial sentences are often the same as for custodial sentences (with the exception of protecting society from violent repeat offenders), and include crime prevention, retribution and rehabilitation of offenders. These objectives are weighed against the economic and social cost to the nation of incarcerating offenders.
Rescuing Ghana’s trafficked children
By Florence Gbolu
This editorial accompanied the article when it was first published in Ghana.
Dreams of attending school are finally coming true for a young boy rescued from a life of illegal labour in a Ghanaian fishing village earlier this year. “Foli”, who is about 11-years-old, has worked illegally for several years with a fisherman in Yeji. The young boy, whose real name cannot, by law, be revealed, told Social Justice that his master woke him at the crack of dawn each day to carry fishing nets and heavy wooden paddles towards the lakeside to begin the day’s job. “I helped my master in the boat by diving into the lake at that cold hour to [dis]entangle nets, which are hooked to stumps,” he said. “Not alone I am made to untie knots, fold and also unfold the fishing nets.” With a sad expression, Foli recalled ill treatment at the hands of his master. He hardly ever received new clothing, saying he “dressed in a dirty torn old and big size t-shirt,” and he was not allowed to observe personal hygiene such as cleaning his teeth or taking a bath. He also faced severe punishments while working. “I’m sometimes hit hard on the head or back with the paddle or given a knock on the head when I’m unable to untie a knot on the nets or do any assignment given me while fishing quickly,” he said. After grabbing the catch for the morning, he carried the fish in a big headpan, leading the way home. When carrying the bowl, he said, he felt sad and abandoned anytime he saw children of his age going to school. “Looking sleepy and tired I’m not allowed to rest but rather continue to work all day while my master’s children go to school,” Foli said. Foli could not remember his parents well because he left his family at a tender age, he does not know exactly when. He believes he has stayed with his master for more than six years. He was sent to serve the fisherman so as to earn money for the care of his parents and his siblings. PARENTS, MASTERS DON’T SEE DANGERS Foli’s story is not unusual, according to Eric Boakye Peasah, Field Manager, Counter-Trafficking Unit of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Speaking in an interview with Social Justice, Peasah said that child trafficking continues to constitute one of the major problems in the county. Numerous research studies and assessments carried out in Ghana have provided clear evidence that child trafficking in a number of sectors does exist on a large scale, he said. Trafficked children in Ghana work in fishing, cocoa processing, mining, domestic servitude, kayaye (head porterage), market selling and begging, said Peasah. The major sending areas for children are the Volta and Central Regions, while major receiving areas for trafficked children include the fishing communities in Yeji and other areas on the shores of Lake Volta. According to Peasah, the fishermen engage the services of children because they believe children are not as rebellious and are less expensive than adult workers. “They also hold the view that children can easily dive to disentangle nets in the lakes, which have a lot of stumps in it, and also fold nets,” he said. The fishermen usually pay between 100,000 and 200,000 cedis (CA$ 13 to $25) for each child and usually enter an agreement that every month, quarterly or annually, an amount of money is sent back home to the family of the child. “Most of these children … are one way or the other related to those they live with.” The hazards involved in the work of child labourers often not concern the parents, and they do not think of the negative impact it is having on child development or their communities, Peasah said. Masters also sometimes promise the families that the children will receive a good education, although this rarely happens. “Child trafficking over the years seems to be an accepted tradition and parents don’t see anything bad or something which infringed upon the rights of their children,” he added. “Parents think the child must work to care for himself and supplement the family income. These children, being vulnerable, do it at the cost of their education, health and even their lives.” MORE THAN 500 CHILDREN RESCUED As most trafficked children do not have access to health care, they suffer from disease or injuries. Some have even death. They do not go to school, making it impossible for them to read or write. No one teaches them right from wrong. Their moral and intellectual growth is stunted, limiting their opportunities to contribute fully to society as adults. Governments all over the world have seen the negative impact child trafficking and all kinds of child labour have had on their country’s development. Therefore, many nations, including Ghana, have put regulations in place to check child trafficking. In Ghana, laws such as the Children’s Act of 560/1998, International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 132 and 182, and the recent Human Trafficking Act 694/2005 seek to protect children from trafficking and underage labour. “Before, there was no law on child trafficking but now that there is a law, we working hard to reduce the rate of trafficking if not bring an end to it, by going to these areas where we educate the people in the communities on the Child Trafficking Law and its consequences,” Peasah said. The IOM, which has a mandate to provide protection and empower trafficked women, men, and children as well as raise awareness and understanding of the issue and bring justice to trafficked persons, is involved with a specific project called the Yeji Child Trafficking Project. This project saves children like Foli from a life of labour. Since the project’s inception in 2002, 587 trafficked children have been rescued from the two major communities that serve the Yeji fishing industry. The project is supported by Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC) and financed by Bureau for Population Refugee and Migration (PRM), the U.S. Department of State and a number of other organizations. It also works hand in hand with other bodies, including the Department of Social Welfare, the Mfantsiman, North Tornu and Pru District Assemblies, the Ghana Police, Ghana Education and Health Services and other non-governmental organizations. HELPS CHILDREN, PARENTS, FISHERMEN To help young trafficked children in the Yeji area, Peasah explained, the project follows a concept they call the “Five R’s”: research, rescue, rehabilitate, reunite and reintegrate. Through research, the project identifies fishing villages that harbour or use trafficked children. During the rescue phase, they approach and solicit cooperation and input from fishermen using the labour of trafficked children. The young labourers are then taken to rehabilitation centres where they stay for a couple of months. The IOM assists with the rehabilitation and recovery of the children, who are often traumatized, and attempts to reunite them with their families and reintegrate them into school and society. The parents or guardians of the children receive micro-credit assistance in the hopes of helping to curb the poverty that may have led them to sell their children into labour in the first place. Project organizers also follow-up with the children to ensure they are doing well in their school or trade and successfully integrating into their new environment. Parents are also monitored to ensure they are taking good care of the children and using the micro-credit assistance appropriately. The IOM also works with the fishermen “masters” of the children. “When we get there, we spend some time with the people and educate them on the issue of child trafficking, its effects on these children and talk to them to give them compensation,” Peasah explained further. “After this education, the people willingly give out the children to us.” The fishermen are made to promise not to recruit additional child labourers before they receive financial assistance to help them supplement their income through alternative livelihoods. A NEW LIFE FOR FOLI Foli was rescued in April 2006. Due to his hardworking nature, it was difficult for his master to release him to the IOM rescue team, says Peasah, but Foli’s master was finally convinced. Foli and 49 other children rescued this year spent 75 days at the Department of Social Welfare Centre in Madina for recovery. He and his new friends also received counselling and some moral training. He now lives with his grandparents, who have been assessed and recommended to receive the micro-credit assistance from the IOM to improve upon their livelihood in farming. Foli is also enrolled in school, bringing to fruition his dreams of attending school like other children. Now in class two, his hardworking nature is certain to serve him well in his new life. He enjoys normal life like any other child, and is well on his way to becoming a healthy and productive member of Ghanaian society. “I’m grateful to IOM for helping me start a new life all over again,” Foli told Social Justice. “I would take my studies seriously and make sure I become a great person.”
This editorial accompanied the article when it was first published in Ghana.
Dreams of attending school are finally coming true for a young boy rescued from a life of illegal labour in a Ghanaian fishing village earlier this year. “Foli”, who is about 11-years-old, has worked illegally for several years with a fisherman in Yeji. The young boy, whose real name cannot, by law, be revealed, told Social Justice that his master woke him at the crack of dawn each day to carry fishing nets and heavy wooden paddles towards the lakeside to begin the day’s job. “I helped my master in the boat by diving into the lake at that cold hour to [dis]entangle nets, which are hooked to stumps,” he said. “Not alone I am made to untie knots, fold and also unfold the fishing nets.” With a sad expression, Foli recalled ill treatment at the hands of his master. He hardly ever received new clothing, saying he “dressed in a dirty torn old and big size t-shirt,” and he was not allowed to observe personal hygiene such as cleaning his teeth or taking a bath. He also faced severe punishments while working. “I’m sometimes hit hard on the head or back with the paddle or given a knock on the head when I’m unable to untie a knot on the nets or do any assignment given me while fishing quickly,” he said. After grabbing the catch for the morning, he carried the fish in a big headpan, leading the way home. When carrying the bowl, he said, he felt sad and abandoned anytime he saw children of his age going to school. “Looking sleepy and tired I’m not allowed to rest but rather continue to work all day while my master’s children go to school,” Foli said. Foli could not remember his parents well because he left his family at a tender age, he does not know exactly when. He believes he has stayed with his master for more than six years. He was sent to serve the fisherman so as to earn money for the care of his parents and his siblings. PARENTS, MASTERS DON’T SEE DANGERS Foli’s story is not unusual, according to Eric Boakye Peasah, Field Manager, Counter-Trafficking Unit of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Speaking in an interview with Social Justice, Peasah said that child trafficking continues to constitute one of the major problems in the county. Numerous research studies and assessments carried out in Ghana have provided clear evidence that child trafficking in a number of sectors does exist on a large scale, he said. Trafficked children in Ghana work in fishing, cocoa processing, mining, domestic servitude, kayaye (head porterage), market selling and begging, said Peasah. The major sending areas for children are the Volta and Central Regions, while major receiving areas for trafficked children include the fishing communities in Yeji and other areas on the shores of Lake Volta. According to Peasah, the fishermen engage the services of children because they believe children are not as rebellious and are less expensive than adult workers. “They also hold the view that children can easily dive to disentangle nets in the lakes, which have a lot of stumps in it, and also fold nets,” he said. The fishermen usually pay between 100,000 and 200,000 cedis (CA$ 13 to $25) for each child and usually enter an agreement that every month, quarterly or annually, an amount of money is sent back home to the family of the child. “Most of these children … are one way or the other related to those they live with.” The hazards involved in the work of child labourers often not concern the parents, and they do not think of the negative impact it is having on child development or their communities, Peasah said. Masters also sometimes promise the families that the children will receive a good education, although this rarely happens. “Child trafficking over the years seems to be an accepted tradition and parents don’t see anything bad or something which infringed upon the rights of their children,” he added. “Parents think the child must work to care for himself and supplement the family income. These children, being vulnerable, do it at the cost of their education, health and even their lives.” MORE THAN 500 CHILDREN RESCUED As most trafficked children do not have access to health care, they suffer from disease or injuries. Some have even death. They do not go to school, making it impossible for them to read or write. No one teaches them right from wrong. Their moral and intellectual growth is stunted, limiting their opportunities to contribute fully to society as adults. Governments all over the world have seen the negative impact child trafficking and all kinds of child labour have had on their country’s development. Therefore, many nations, including Ghana, have put regulations in place to check child trafficking. In Ghana, laws such as the Children’s Act of 560/1998, International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 132 and 182, and the recent Human Trafficking Act 694/2005 seek to protect children from trafficking and underage labour. “Before, there was no law on child trafficking but now that there is a law, we working hard to reduce the rate of trafficking if not bring an end to it, by going to these areas where we educate the people in the communities on the Child Trafficking Law and its consequences,” Peasah said. The IOM, which has a mandate to provide protection and empower trafficked women, men, and children as well as raise awareness and understanding of the issue and bring justice to trafficked persons, is involved with a specific project called the Yeji Child Trafficking Project. This project saves children like Foli from a life of labour. Since the project’s inception in 2002, 587 trafficked children have been rescued from the two major communities that serve the Yeji fishing industry. The project is supported by Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC) and financed by Bureau for Population Refugee and Migration (PRM), the U.S. Department of State and a number of other organizations. It also works hand in hand with other bodies, including the Department of Social Welfare, the Mfantsiman, North Tornu and Pru District Assemblies, the Ghana Police, Ghana Education and Health Services and other non-governmental organizations. HELPS CHILDREN, PARENTS, FISHERMEN To help young trafficked children in the Yeji area, Peasah explained, the project follows a concept they call the “Five R’s”: research, rescue, rehabilitate, reunite and reintegrate. Through research, the project identifies fishing villages that harbour or use trafficked children. During the rescue phase, they approach and solicit cooperation and input from fishermen using the labour of trafficked children. The young labourers are then taken to rehabilitation centres where they stay for a couple of months. The IOM assists with the rehabilitation and recovery of the children, who are often traumatized, and attempts to reunite them with their families and reintegrate them into school and society. The parents or guardians of the children receive micro-credit assistance in the hopes of helping to curb the poverty that may have led them to sell their children into labour in the first place. Project organizers also follow-up with the children to ensure they are doing well in their school or trade and successfully integrating into their new environment. Parents are also monitored to ensure they are taking good care of the children and using the micro-credit assistance appropriately. The IOM also works with the fishermen “masters” of the children. “When we get there, we spend some time with the people and educate them on the issue of child trafficking, its effects on these children and talk to them to give them compensation,” Peasah explained further. “After this education, the people willingly give out the children to us.” The fishermen are made to promise not to recruit additional child labourers before they receive financial assistance to help them supplement their income through alternative livelihoods. A NEW LIFE FOR FOLI Foli was rescued in April 2006. Due to his hardworking nature, it was difficult for his master to release him to the IOM rescue team, says Peasah, but Foli’s master was finally convinced. Foli and 49 other children rescued this year spent 75 days at the Department of Social Welfare Centre in Madina for recovery. He and his new friends also received counselling and some moral training. He now lives with his grandparents, who have been assessed and recommended to receive the micro-credit assistance from the IOM to improve upon their livelihood in farming. Foli is also enrolled in school, bringing to fruition his dreams of attending school like other children. Now in class two, his hardworking nature is certain to serve him well in his new life. He enjoys normal life like any other child, and is well on his way to becoming a healthy and productive member of Ghanaian society. “I’m grateful to IOM for helping me start a new life all over again,” Foli told Social Justice. “I would take my studies seriously and make sure I become a great person.”
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