FEBRUARY 21

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02 DAILY QUOTE Don’t Let Yesterday Take Up Too Much Of Today. – Will Rogers CONTENT ANNIVERSARIES Independence Day — Wednesday, 6th March. Good Friday — Friday, 19th April. Easter Monday — Monday, 22nd April. DAILY HERITAGE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2019 Published by: EIB Network / Heritage Communications Ltd. Managing Editor: William Asiedu: 0208156974 Editor: Kofi Enchill: 0265653335 ISSN: 0855-52307 VOL 7 Location: Meridian House (Starr FM) Ring Road. Box AD 676, Adabraka, Accra,Ghana. Telephone: +233-0302- 236051, 020-8156974 026-5653335 www.dailyheritage.com.gh Adverts/Mktg: Paul Ampong-Mensah 024-4360782 Fax: +233-0302-237156 Email: news@dailyheritagegh.com.gh heritagenewspaper@yahoo.co.uk • Brenda Aduna lost one teeth after suffering severe beating from her husband Man beats wife to death BY PHILIP ANTOH philip.antoh@dailyheritage.com.gh THE ADENTAN Divisional Police Command has held a 34-year-old Mawuli Armah for causing unlawful harm and murder following an assault on his 35-year-old wife, Belinda Aduna, leading to her death. According to ACP C. Kofie, the Divisional Commander, the suspect was arrested at Tsito, his hometown in the Volta Region, where he had travelled to after he had picked a fight with the wife. ACP Kofie said immediately after his arrest, he was put before Adentan Magistrate Court on January 31, 2018 and reminded in police custody to reappear on March 5. Narrating the incident to the DAILY HER- ITAGE, the Divisional Crime Officer, DSP Akowuah, said the wife made complaints to the Adentan Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) on January 14 that Mawuli (suspect) had assaulted her leading to the loss of one of her teeth, which had caused her to suffer headache. DSP Akowuah added that on January 16, the wife complained of severe headache and was rushed to the Pentecost Hospital at Madina but was pronounced dead on arrival. He said the police took up investigations into the matter and later collaborated with the police at Tsito, where the suspect was arrested on January 24, brought to Accra, and put before court charged with causing unlawful harm and murder. The police said their initial investigations revealed that Mawuli had been assaulting his wife frequently and had many assault cases pending at the Adentan DOVVSU. DSP Akowuah said the body of the deceased was sent to the Police Hospital for autopsy and •The deceased the initial report said the cause of death was indeterminate. The autopsy report has therefore angered the family of the deceased, who claimed their relative may have died as a result of the assault meted out to her by the husband (suspect) few days before her death. Speaking to the paper in a tearful mood, the younger sister of the deceased, Ms Brenda Aduna, said their relative had two girls by the suspect before her untimely death, adding that the suspect started a fight with her wife where he wanted to use a pistol to hit her but “we intervened.” “In our quest to separate the fight, the pistol hit the windscreen of his car so Mawuli went to DOVVSU to report that I had broken his windscreen and I was given the option either to buy the broken windscreen or go to court and I accepted to pay,” Ms Aduna said.. Ms Adunah said on Thursday, January 18, 2018, after returning from Adentan DOVVSU, the suspect locked the wife in their room and assaulted her,, leading to the loss of one of her teeth after which he travelled to his hometown the following day. “I received a call from my sister on Sunday evening complaining of severe headache but I couldn’t visit her that evening so I went to the house on Monday morning to take her to the hospital. While in the taxi to the hospital we had an accident on the way. “My sister’s husband has told me on many occasions if I don’t come for my sister I will only come and meet her corpse and truly he has done that,” she stated. The family has therefore rejected the autopsy report and has retrieved the body to the 37 Military Hospital for fresh autopsy to determine the cause of death but autopsy report at 37 confirmed the initial report at the Police Hospital. Inter-ministerial taskforce rescues Aminase forest • 13 Chinese arrested, 24 excavators confiscated BY PHILIP ANTOH philip.antoh@dailyheritage.com.gh THE INTER-MINISTERIAL Taskforce for Small Scale Mining has rescued the Aminase Forest Reserve from total destruction through the activities of Chinese illegal miners, popularly known as galamsey, in the Upper Denkyira West District of the Central Region. The Chinese ‘galamseyers’ have succeeded in destroying more than 24,000 acres of land and water bodies all in the names of engaging in illegal mining within a seven-year period and through the timely intervention of the taskforce, 13 illegal Chinese miners and their Ghanaian counterparts have been apprehended and 24 excavators consificated. Speaking to a cross-session of the media at Diaso in the Upper Denkyira West District on February 16, Mr Francis Asibi-Abu, head of the Interministerial Taskforce for Small Scale Mining, said the chiefs and people in the area woke up one day to see a convoy of excavators moving into to the reserve which their ancestors had protected with all their lives. Mr Asibi-Abu said reliable sources in the area told them that it was in the same area that the murder of Major Mahama took place. He said the 13 Chinese galamseyers that were arrested during the operations had been transported to the Immigration headquarters in Accra for deportation processes while the 24 excavators had been dumped at the operations headquarters at Obuasi and the Ghanaians have been granted police inquiry bail pending investigations. Mr Asibi-Abu expressed shock at the extent of devastation to the forest reserve but gave assurance of his outfit’s readiness to team up with the National Security outfit to arrest illegal gold miners together with government officials for investigations and possible prosecution. According to him, the action to arrest perpetrators would only serve as a deterrent to others who were involved in galamsey activities in other parts of the country. Mr Asibi-Abu said mining operation at the site was illegal because the owners, who are mainly Chinese, “have been operating without a licence but succeeded in destroying the forest with a prospecting licence the Canada and Ghana (C&G) Alaska Mining Company claims to have acquired.” He revealed that the Chinese illegal miners had caused great damage to the ecology of the land, degraded and depleted the forest reserves which have become a worry to the government. Confirming claims that C&G Alaska Mining Company Limited had been very instrumental in the illegal mining activities in the forest reserve, Mr Asibi-Abu said the company was behind the illegal activities in the forest and that of the Apraprama Forest Reserve. He said in view of the government’s determination to ensure an end to this anomaly, he and his team would continue to operate in the forest until every single illegal miner was brought to book. He, however, indicated that education and awareness had been created to ensure that people do not continue to settle in the abandoned mined areas for health reasons. According to him, the government has plans to reclaim the destroyed and abandoned lands, hence the operation continues to ensure that all such activities are stopped and perpetrators brought to book. Mr Asibi-Abu also revealed that when the exercise began, there were lots of restrictions to their operations and many forest guards were not allowed to enter some concession areas, which made it difficult for the team to clamp down on these illegal miners at the early stages of their activities. On whether C&G Alaska was operating with the requisite licence, Mr Asibi-Abu said, “What we know is that they have some licence for prospecting but it was not licence for mining. But we can all see for ourselves that this kind of prospecting is not prospecting.” A tour to Aminase Forest Reserve on Saturday, February 16, 2019, organised by taskforces of the Inter-Ministerial Committee Against Illegal Mining and Small Scale Miners Association revealed that the activities of the illegal Chinese gold miners had destroyed vast hectares of the Aminase forest reserve. During the tour of the forest, the taskforce demolished all wooden structures erected by these Chinese galamseyers in the forest which served as their places of abode.
WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH DAILY HERITAGE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2019 03 Pocket money for prosecution saga Armed robbers freed BY MUNTALLA INUSAH muntalla.inusah@dailyheritage.com.gh ADISTURBING development emerging from the corridors of the Ghana Police Service is that the peace officers are losing confidence in their own work following the continuous release of suspected criminals by various courts because “we do not have enough pocket money” to prosecute cases. The police prosecutors and investigators are worried that after working hard at their peril to arrest and arraign suspects, they are discharged on the technicality of want of prosecution. “We struggle to arrest armed robbers to the extent that sometimes our colleagues are killed in line of duty and when such a person is discharged on that technicality it demoralises us (police personnel),” a police prosecutor stated on condition of anonymity. “This directive of Disclosure of Documents introduced by the Chief Justice, which took effect from November 1, 2018, seems to have made the law flexible to the offender and some of the accused persons, when they are discharged, point fingers at us and sometimes warn us, because the person has been freed. Our pockets are also dry and nobody is giving us money to prosecute the cases.” Public confidence in police diminishing The prosecutors also lamented that their effort is being ridiculed by the public, who are “losing confidence in our system, and public confidence in the police is diminishing”. “If the public realises that the police have made arrests and the people are discharged, it makes them lose the trust in us. Some of these criminals are clever people and when they are discharged they go back and repeat similar acts and put the police in a more difficult position. “Some armed robbers have been discharged because the prosecution didn’t have money to file certain processes. We have evidence of the cases we bring to the court. At times when we arrest them at the police station level, they admit. They mention names of persons they work together with but when the police take the pain at their peril and arraign them, they are eventually discharged.” ‘We’re fed up’ It would be recalled that on Thursday, February 14, 2019, the DAILY HER- ITAGE, carried a story on its front page with the banner headline ‘We’re Fed Up, Police Prosecutors Cry Out, Warned More Criminals Would Be Freed’, which highlighted the facts that prosecutors handling cases on behalf of the state use their own pocket money to prepare to prosecute. The prosecutors, who are tasked by the • David Asante Apeatu, IGP Attorney General’s Department to prosecute criminal offence on behalf of the State, said they were “frustrated” and “fed up” with the continuous use of their “pocket monies” to provide services to the State. It is their case that with the introduction of Discovery of Documents in November 2018 as per Article 19(2) (e) (g) of the 1992 Constitution, police prosecutors and State Attorneys are mandated to make available relevant documents they intend to rely on to prosecute accused persons. They said since the introduction of the procedure on November 1, 2018 they have made several copies of documents with their “own pocket monies” and averred that the instance where they did not have money, they asked for unnecessary adjournments, a development that forces the courts to discharge accused persons “for want of prosecution.” The CJ’s directive, the source said, is that every police prosecutor, the judge or the magistrate, “before you commence prosecuting a criminal case, the prosecutors have to give you all statements of the witnesses.” Police, AG discussing modalities The Director-General of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service, ACP David Eklu, told the DAILY HERITAGE yesterday in a telephone interview that the matter had been discussed at management level and the Legal and Prosecuting Directorate had been tasked to come up with modalities for consideration. “That issue was discussed at management and the legal and prosecuting directorate was tasked to come out with various modalities to make it easier for those prosecutors to provide those documents to the other parties as per the Supreme Court decision. Asked if the modalities would include refunding the pocket monies to the prosecutors, ACP Eklu said “the possibilities include all those, but I don’t want to sound so certain that is what we are going to do, so I’m saying that we are looking at other modalities and all those are part of it (sic).” High Court affirms Mintah Ackaah BY MUNTALLA INUSAH muntalla.inusah@dailyheritage.com.gh THE PROBIT Division of the Accra High Court has thrown out an interlocutory injunction filed by Adams Addy and one another seeking a stay of execution of a High Court judgment declaring Solomon Mintah Ackaah as the legitimate Head of the Akwanor Royal Family of Ashalaja. The court presided over by Justice Doris Bempong ruled that,” upon hearing the arguments of both counsel on the questions of stay of execution, the court • As substantive Head of Nii Akwanor Royal Family of Ashalaja • Akwanor Royal Family invites investors was not convinced that the applicants have demonstrated any exceptional circumstances warranting the grant and have not shown they would suffer hardship if the application was not granted.” The application for interlocutory injunction was struck out as withdrawn and costs of GHc1, 000 awarded in favour of Mintah Ackaah. Solomon Mintah Ackaah is legitimate Head of Akwanor Family The court, prior to dismissing the stay of execution, had declared on December 5, 2018 that Ackaah is the substantive Head of the Akwanor Royal Family and not Adams Addy. The court also declared that any acts done by defendants in their alleged capacity as joint heads of family are null and void. Justice Mrs Bempong also ordered the defendants to relinquish any assets of the Akwanor Royal Family that had come to them by reason of their holding themselves out as joint family heads. The defendants, the court said, are “perpetually restrained from holding themselves out as heads of the Akwanor Royal Family. Costs of GH¢8, 000 was awarded against the defendants. Plaintiff ’s claims In April 2014, Solomon Mintah Ackaah imitated an action against the defendants, Adams Addy and one other, seeking a declaration that the plaintiff is the substantive head of the Akwanor Royal Family. He also asked the court to declare that the defendants are not the heads of the Akwanor Royal Family and further asked the court to declare that any act or acts done by the defendants in the purported capacity as joint heads or head of the Akwanor Royal Family is null and void. Counter-claims Defendants, in their counterclaims filed in February 2017, also sought a deceleration that the defendants have always been the • CONTINUE ON PAGE 5
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