MARCH 25

spread_ MARCH 25, 2019.qxp_SHOWBIZ TEMP 22/03/2019 10:11 PM Page 1
News
DAILY
Rainstorm rips off schools,
houses at Okorase
A HEAVY rainstorm has
wreaked havoc at Okorase, a
farming community community
in the Akuapem North
Municipality of the Eastern
Region.
Classrooms, staff common
rooms and Computer
Laboratories of Three schools;
Methodist Primary, Presby
Primary and Methodist Junior
High School have all been ripped
off.
Teaching and learning
materials such as exercise books
and computers in these school
were soaked with water.
Also, some examination
papers printed for upcoming end
of term examination scheduled
for next week were also affected.
According to one of the
headmistresses of the affected
schools, urgent help is needed to
help restore academic work
which has been disrupted.
The headmistress of Okorase
Methodist Primary School, Ms
•KG pupils waiting for their
turn to do the march past
•The scene after the rainstorm
Linda Asare Appiah-Danquah,
said the KG classroom has been
affected as well as recently
acquired computers for ICT
Practicals.
Rev Sarbeng Appiah- Kubi,
Minister in charge of Okorase
Methodist Church told Kasapa
News the Church is considering
given out its uncompleted church
building to temporarily
accommodate the displaced
pupils but was concerned with its
•KG pupils of His Grace and Mercy Preparatory School
presenting their petition to the MCE
•Odeefuo Oteng Korankye II,
Berekusohene sits in state
suitability for academic work
since it is not in good shape.
Thursday’s •The rainstorm cleared site in
Okorase proposed also affected for dozens the of
houses and shops SHS displacing
many residents.
Many giant billboards along
the Okorase to Koforidua
township have been floored.
Reports indicate that the
rainstorm was recorded in many
parts of the region and may have
caused problems elsewhere.
FOR THE second time in
a row the hearing of an
application by the
Electoral Commission
for an extension of time
to implement the
Representation of People’s
Amendment Act (ROPAA) has
suffered adjournment.
On March 4, 2019 the case was
adjourned to March 21 for the
application for the extension to be
moved.
But counsel for the respondents,
Samson Lardi Anyenini, told the
court that there had been a new
development for which they would
need an adjournment.
He prayed the court for an
adjournment to allow the
respondents in the case file a
supplementary affidavit to enable
them to fully present their side of
the case.
According to him, it was
supposed to have been filed on
Wednesday but some difficulties
were encountered and it delayed but
it was filed on Thursday.
DAILY HERITAGE Court
Correspondent MuntallaInusah has
reported that Justin Amenuvor,
counsel for EC who was to move
the application raised no objection.
The court, presided over by
Justice Nicholas Mensah Cudjoe
HERITAGE, MONDAY, MARCH 25, 2019 WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
ROPAA case suffers another delay RTI bill removed
BY MUNTALLA INUSAH
muntalla.inusah@dailyheritage.com
Abodakpi, adjourned the case to
April 3, 2019.
Trial of JB’s killers begins April 1
BY MUNTALLA INUSAH
muntalla.inusah@dailyheritage.com
THE TRIAL of Daniel Asiedu, the man
indicted for the murder of the Member
of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa North,
Mr Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu, will
commence on April 1, 2019 at the
Criminal Division of the Accra High
Court.
Also standing trial is Vincent Bosso,
the second accused person, who, together
with Asiedu, is alleged to have planned a
robbery operation that subsequently
resulted in the murder of the former
legislator.
Asiedu is facing three counts of
murder, robbery and conspiracy to
commit robbery, while Bosso is facing a
charge of conspiracy to commit robbery.
In court on Thursday for the second
time after their committals on February
11, the court presided over by Justice
George Boadi fixed April 1 to start the
trial because he had just received the
documents from the district court that
performed the committals.
Asiedu, alias Sexy Don Don, urged
the court to find him a competent lawyer
to help him fight his case.
• The two accused persons being whisked away
According to him, the reason he was
asking for lawyers from the International
Criminal Court was that the government
would compromise the lawyers since
“money can do anything in Ghana.”
11 Witnesses, 29 material evidence
Ms Sefakor Batse, a Senior State
Attorney, informed the court that the
State would call 11 witnesses and also rely
on 29 exhibits to prove its case at the
trial. Presenting the facts of the case, Ms
Batse said Asiedu and Bossu planned to
go on a robbery spree, but due to a
•Jean Mensa, EC boss
misunderstanding, Bosso did not partake
in the act.
She said Asiedu went to the MP’s
house on February 9, 2016 around
1:00a.m. and robbed him of his three
mobile phones and that he gave two of
the phones to a repairer to unlock but the
repairer saw blood stains on the phone
and reported the matter to the police.
Ms Batse also contended that Asiedu
entered the house of the MP at 1a.m. and
noticed that the light in the room of the
MP was on and the room had no metal
EC Application
The EC, in an application
filed to ask for time to
implement Act 699, the
Chairperson of EC, Jean
Mensa, said the Commission
had been bedeviled with some
challenges which affected its
ability to implement the Act.
It would be recalled that
on December 17, 2017 the
Human Rights Division of
the Accra High Court ordered
the EC to activate the process
that would enable Ghanaians
living abroad to vote in the
country’s elections.
The court said within 12
calendar months – beginning
from January 1, 2018 – the
EC should lay before
Parliament the modalities for
the implementation of the
ROPAA Act so that Ghanaian
citizens living abroad could
take part in election 2020.
The court, presided over
by Justice Anthony K.
Yeboah, also ordered the EC
to explain why it failed to
implement the Act within one
month after the expiration of
the 12-month period.
Justice Yeboah’s court also
ordered the EC to publish the
reasons in the media.
In a motion filed at the Accra
bars to prevent him from entering it.
The court heard that Asiedu grabbed
a ladder and climbed onto the porch and
entered the room through the window.
She said the MP, who had returned
home at 11:40 p.m. the previous day, was
fast asleep. Asiedu, upon entering the
room, started searching it and in the
process, the MP woke up in an attempt
to stop him from taking anything from
the room.
She said Asiedu stabbed Mr
Danquah- Adu in the process, leading to
his death.
‘I planned MP’s killing’
When offered the opportunity to
speak, Asiedu, first accused persons (A1),
told the court that he had planned the
murder of the MP with some others.
He told the court that even though
there was enough money when he broke
into the room of the MP, the intention
was not to steal but to kill.
He also told the court that as part of
their plan, it was known to him that he
would be arrested after the incident.
Asiedu also told the court that he
entered the MP’s house through his main
gate even though security was tight and
that not even a dog would be allowed to
pass in front of the house.
High Court, the EC said the Act
had not been implemented
principally because of three main
challenges which the EC faced
shortly after the order.
The challenges, the EC
Chairperson said, included the
removal of Charlotte Osei and her
two deputies, Amadu Sulley and
Georgina Opoku-Amankwa, who
were found guilty of six allegations
levelled against them by some
petitioners.
The EC said also that it failed to
implement the order of the Court
thereafter because of its work
relating to the referenda to create
six new regions in the country.
Mrs Mensa indicated in the
affidavit of support that the EC
had inaugurated a committee,
chaired by the Deputy Chairperson,
Dr BossmanAsare Eric.
She said the committee was
working with the general public,
stakeholders and other countries
that are practising External Voting
to take the appropriate steps for its
implementation in Ghana.
She, therefore, prayed the court
to give EC more time to
operationalise Act 699 for 12
calendar months ending January
2020.
He told the court that ever since his
arrest, he had never seen those he
planned the incident with.
NPP contracted me, not NDC
He told the court that contrary to his
earlier claims that it was some members
within the National Democratic Congress
(NDC) who contracted him, it was rather
members of the New Patriotic Party
(NPP), because ever since he went to the
Nsawam Medium Security Prison, he had
accepted Christ and decided to speak the
truth even if he would have to die for it.
According to him, he had mentioned
the names of those persons when he was
re-arrested by the police after the High
Court had discharged him earlier.
He told the court that the statement
he had given to the police could not be
traced, hence his plea for him to be
offered ICC lawyers for the truth to
come out.
He said the family of JB Danquah-
Adu “is still blaming me. My lord, that is
why I am saying I need help to get an
ICC lawyer else the truth will not come
out.”
He also told the court that he did not
know Bossu, the second accused persons.
from Order Paper
SPEAKER OF Parliament,
Prof Mike Oquaye, has
ordered the removal of the
Right to Information bill
from the House’s Order
Paper.
The order was
necessitated by demands by
Civil Society Organisations
(CSOs) for some
amendments to be effected
before the passage of the
bill into law.
The RTI Coalition has
presented some proposals to
be incorporated into the bill
before its passage into law..
Announcing the
directive, the Speaker said,
“We are duty-bound to
listen to other viewpoints
on this matter.”
The Speaker’s directive
comes barely 24hours after
the Majority Leader and
Minister for Parliamentary
Affairs disclosed the Bill
would be passed into law on
Friday, March 22.
“Mr Speaker, as I said,
the matter of policy has
been sorted out. What is left
now is that new proposals
have come from civil society
for us to factor them into
the bill. Other than that,
nothing prevents us from
bringing matters to a
closure.
“That’s why I’m saying it
is even possible to bring
matters to a closure this
•Prof Mike Oquaye,
Speaker of Parliament
week, Friday [that is, March
21],” Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-
Bonsu stated.
Second Deputy Speaker
Alban Bagbin, during last
Wednesday’s Parliamentary
proceedings, urged CSOs to
lessen their push for their
proposals to be
incorporated into the bill at
all cost.
He said: “Civil societies
should be informed that
these things are
evolutionary, not
revolutionary. They are
evolutionary and so some of
the proposals could be
legislated upon but they
could be held up when it
comes to issues of
implementation.”
RTI
The RTI bill was laid
before Parliament by the
Deputy Attorney General
Joseph Kpemka Dindiok in
March this year.
It has been 22 years since
the first RTI bill was drafted
under the auspices of the
Institute of Economic
Affairs (IEA), and 16 years
since the Executive arm of
government in 2002 drafted
the first RTI bill.
The draft Executive Bill
was subsequently reviewed
in 2003, 2005 and 2007 but
was never laid in Parliament
until February 5, 2010.