Friday, September 4, 2009

American teenager provides water for Mo residents

Friday, September 4, 2009 (DAILY GRAPHIC - CENTRE SPREAD)

AN 18-year-old American national, Mr Cameron Murray, has embarked on a project to provide clean drinking water for inhabitants of Mo and surrounding villages in northern Ghana.
He has so far raised more than $8,000 to drill new boreholes, as well as repairing four additional boreholes which had broken down for more than three years.
Mr Murray, founder of Rock For Reason, told the Daily Graphic that he was touched when he realised that many inhabitants of Mo were without potable water and he, therefore, began the project in order to provide potable water to thousands of inhabitants.
According to him, he decided to turn things around when he went back home to Seattle, Washington State in the United States of America (USA) and began organising concerts to raise money for the project.
“I began my pursuit to put smiles on the faces of these inhabitants by organising local concerts in Maple Valley to raise funds to drill boreholes for the people of Mo and surrounding villages,” Mr Murray, the son of the Head Pastor of Real Life Church, Maple Valley, Seattle, pointed out.
Mr Murray’s plan included producing benefit concerts featuring local up-and-coming bands and in the process raised money through the sale of tickets, T-shirts, and snacks.
According to him, he managed to recruit the youth who believed in his vision to help carry out the mission to provide potable water at Mo and surrounding villages.
Mr Cameron said it all began when his dad, Pastor Murray, took him on a mission trip to Mo where they visited many communities that were without clean water and also saw many women and children travel hundreds of miles to have access to water.
“I was moved by what I witnessed and decided to make a difference in their lives,” Mr Murray stated.
Back home, Mr Murray accordingly organised teenagers at Maple Valley, showed pictures of the source of drinking water of the people of Mo and raised funds in the process.
Mr Murray raised enough funds and visited Mo last month with more than eight of his colleagues in pursuit of the project.
They have since left for Seattle to raise more funds.
He has currently set up a website with address: rockforreason.com to solicit support of any form from public-spirited individuals and organisations.

Muslims assured of incident-free Hajj

Thursday, September 3, 2009 (Page 45)

MUSLIMS in the country have been given the assurance that their endeavour to undertake this year’s holy pilgrimage to Mecca will be incident-free.
The Vice President, Mr John Mahama, in a speech read on his behalf at Lawra, said the government had taken concrete steps to ensure that this year’s pilgrimage would become incident-free and that the perennial challenges which characterised the Hajj was a thing of the past.
The speech was delivered on behalf of the Vice President by the District Chief Executive of Lawra, Mr Abu Sampson, who also donated some food items to Muslim leaders on behalf of the Vice President.
In their holy month of Ramadan, Muslims across the world have begun their annual fasting in preparation for the Eid-Fitr and the Hajj. The Vice President’s presentation was to support Muslims in those communities during the period.
Mr Sampson was assisted by Cosmos Anpengnuo, an Accra-based legal practitioner, who is also a native of the area, to make the donation on behalf of the Vice-President.
According to the Vice-President, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government was determined to fulfil its obligations and promises to the people of Ghana.
In achieving the government’s goal of a better Ghana, “the government would among, other things, continue to support the Muslim community in your quest to strengthen your faith during this period of Ramadan”.
He said the month of Ramadan offered Muslims the opportunity to re-examine their lives and renew their faith in Allah, who is gracious, merciful and ready to pardon.
“Let us allow the kindness of Allah to reflect in our individual daily lives and the total result for the whole nation would be the blessings of Allah the Almighty,” the Vice-President pointed out.
He expressed the belief that Muslims would come out of this period of fasting rejuvenated in the spirit of Allah and willing to help build a better Ghana.
Receiving the items on behalf of the Muslim community, Alhaji Abdulai Muctar, thanked the Vice- President and the government for the donation and said the Muslim community would continue to pray for and support the government.
Other Muslim leaders present were Nabali Salifu, head of the Ahmadis in the community and the chief of the Dagomba community there, Alhassan Abdulai.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Trial of ex-magistrate for fraud resumes

Saturday, August 29, 2009 (Page 20)

THE trial of a former female magistrate, Anna Jane Ghartey, who allegedly defrauded a professor to the tune of GH¢18,000, resumed yesterday at the Circuit Court in Accra after almost four weeks break following a request for the docket by the Attorney-General’s Department.
At the court’s sitting in Accra yesterday, the case was, however, adjourned to September 3, 2009 after the prosecutor, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, Ms Mary Agbozo, informed the court that she had received a medical report indicating that Anna was indisposed.
She gave a copy of the report to the trial judge, Mr Mahamadu Iddrisu, who accordingly adjourned the case to September 3, 2009.
The trial was, on July 30, 2009, adjourned for a month after the Attorney-General’s Department had demanded for the docket on the case.
However, the A-G’s Department took less than a month to refer the matter back to the court for continuation.
On July 31, 2009, counsel for the former magistrate was expected to cross-examine the complainant, Professor Joseph Emmanuel Adjaye, who had told the Accra Circuit Court on Tuesday, July 28, 2009 that the magistrate had given him fake documents covering two plots of land he had purchased at GH¢20,000.
However, on the said July 31, 2009, when the matter was called, the trial judge announced that the A-G’s office had requested for the docket to study the case.
He said the A-G’s office needed one month to study the case and accordingly adjourned the matter to Thursday, September 3, 2009.
Anna was alleged to have conspired with Samuel Aidoo, a building contractor, and Joana Nyarko, a fishmonger, to deceive Prof. Adjaye into believing that she (Anna) had parcels of land for sale at Adjiringanor, a suburb of Accra, and succeeded in collecting GH¢18,000 from him and prepared fake indentures covering two plots of land belonging to a deceased person.
Anna, who has since been discharged from the bench, has been granted bail in the sum of GH¢30,000 with two sureties by the court.
The accused person is also standing trial in the same court for allegedly defrauding a Swiss national, Ms Darcie Slavin, of GH¢47,000 under the guise of providing her with plots of land. She has been granted bail in the sum of GH¢40,000 with two sureties.
In his evidence-in-chief, Prof. Adjaye, who is a lecturer of African Studies at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States of America (USA), said one of the indentures covering the plots sold to him indicated that the land belonged to Kpeshie chiefs, contrary to earlier claims by Anna that the land belonged to one Auntie Rose.
He also told the court that one of the indentures covering the land he paid for in 2007, also contained the name of a person who died in June 2005 at 98.
Prof. Adjaye told the court that he met Anna in December 2006 through his brother, Dr Robert Adjaye, when he (Prof. Adjaye) needed parcels of land to purchase for development.
He said Anna, who was then with the Ghana Prisons Service, showed him parcels of land at Adjiringano and East Legon and later delegated Samuel to show him (Prof. Adjaye) more plots of land.
According to him, he made payments in three instalments to the tune of GH¢20,000 and an additional payment of GH¢5,000, which Anna said the Kpeshie chiefs would use to prepare consent letters, indentures and other documents covering the land.
He explained that Anna issued receipts for all payments he made to her.
He said he never received those consent letters and further told the court that a search he conducted at the Lands Commission proved that the lands Anna had sold to him belonged to other people.
Prof. Adjaye told the court that upon realising that he had been duped, he decided to report Anna to the Property Fraud Unit of the Ghana Police Service to retrieve his money.
According to him, he was amazed to find that Samuel had used documents bearing his (Prof. Adjaye’s) name to sell the same plot of land sold to him to another developer.
The complainant also told the court that Anna refunded GH¢4,000 as part payment of the moneys she had received from him after he had lodged a complaint with the police.
According to the facts of the case, in December 2006 Anna and Samuel collected GH¢11,000 from Prof. Adjaye and a further GH¢7,000 in August 2007.
According to the prosecution, the accused persons managed to hand over two parcels of land to Prof. Adjaye and prepared documents covering the land and handed them over to the complainant.
However, Prof. Adjaye was prevented from developing the land by some persons who also claimed ownership of it.