Published in the Daily Graphic on 17/05/2010, pg 17
Story: Matilda Attram
SDA Church assists Psychiatric Hospital
THE Accra South-East District of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church (SDA) has donated assorted items to the Accra Psychiatric Hospital and the Osu Children's Home for the upkeep of the inmates.
The items, worth GH¢800, included eggs, biscuits, toiletries, clothes and bags of rice.
Presenting the items, the District Pastor, Pastor Emmanuel Acquaye Allotey, said the presentation was in fulfilment of the church's social responsibility to share its blessings from God with the rest of society.
"Jesus Christ devoted much time to healing and supporting the poor and that’s what we want to emulate," he said.
The Chairman of the Welfare Committee of the church, Elder Joe Kwarteng, stated that the presentation was to show love, concern for and interest in supporting the less privileged in society.
He said the church inculcated the spirit of love, giving and volunteerism in its members, hence the willingness of members to contribute their widow’s mite to support the needy.
The First Elder in charge of the church, Elder Paul Kwaku Addai, commended the workers of the two institutions and assured them of subsequent visits by the church to support their operations.
The church, also known as the Nungua Beach Road SDA, used the opportunity to fellowship with inmates of the institutions.
Receiving the items, the Senior Nursing Officer of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Mr Kofi Nartey, and the Assistant Supervisor of the Osu Children's Home, Madam Annie Kpedekpo, thanked members of the church for their support.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Special Courts review remand cases
Published in the Daily Graphic on 20/05/2010, pg (spread,middle pg)
Story: Matilda Attram, Nsawam
Remand prisoners at the Nsawam Prison heaved a sigh of relief when 10 special court sessions were held at the prison to review their cases, some of which have been pending for 10 years.
At the end of the exercise, which was carried out under the auspices of the Justice For All Project, 27 remand prisoners regained their freedom.
Other remand prisoners were granted bail, some were convicted and sentenced while a few cases were adjourned to the next hearing scheduled for June 22.
There were 2,356 male remand prisoners at the Nsawam Prison alone when auditing of remand prisoners was carried out in 2007.
The Justice for All Programme, dubbed ‘the Remand Review Project’, was initiated in 2007 to enhance justice delivery and foster the adherence to human rights.
A collaborative effort among the Attorney General’s Department, the Centre for Human and Civil Liberties (CHURCIL), a non-governmental organisation, the Ghana Police Service, the Prison Service, and the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), the Remand Review Project is also a mechanism intended to decongest the prisons.
Performing the opening session, the Chief Justice, Mrs Georgina Wood, observed that the high population of remand prisoners was a clear indication that the Judiciary had breached some provisions of the 1992 Constitution.
“Each one of us actively engaged in the administration of criminal justice has contributed to this anomalous situation. For this reason, the responsibility lies on us to collaboratively work to find a concrete solution this problem, which sadly thus constitutes a blot on our human right records,” she said:
According to her, the Judiciary, among other stakeholders and the general public, breached Articles 19(1) and (2) (c) of the 1992 Constitution, which provided some rights of an accused person before being judged.
The articles state that “(1) A person charged with a criminal offence shall be given a fair hearing within a reasonable time by a court”, while (2) (c) states that “A Person charged with criminal offence shall be presumed innocent until he is proved or has pleaded quilty.”
She further explained that in criminal jurisprudence, there were two types of offences, which demanded intervention by the courts prior to the commencement of the actual trial.
The types of offences, she said, were the bailable and the non-bailable offences.
Mrs Wood said the basic requirement of any trail court before which an accused person had been arraigned for trial in a criminal case was to ensure that the person, if released on bail, would appear on the adjourned date to stand trail.
“There is no reason why a court must remand an accused person in custody, pending trial if there are no valid reasons showing that such a person will not appear to stand trial,” she said.
She added that the real challenge, however, occurred during the non-bailable offences such as robbery, murder, narcotics, rape and defilement.
Mrs Wood said that even so the courts had held that notwithstanding the ouster of the time-honoured discretionary power to grant bail in such cases, bail would nonetheless be granted whenever it was demonstrated that there had been unreasonable delay in the trial or where the facts presented upon arraignment did not support the offence with which the accused had been charged.
The Chief Justice appreciated the need for the country to take her constitutional responsibilities seriously to ensure that criminal justice was delivered for the benefit of all.
She further mentioned safety, security and stability as elements that constituted a country’s ability to nurture development and good governance.
She said Ghana was a highly respected nation of hope in Africa and, therefore, must demonstrate a clear and sustained commitment to the rule of law and human rights.
She advised officials of the Judiciary to turn down unlawful demands from the public and rather acknowledge their judicial oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the nation to protect the rights of the citizens.
The Chairman of the project, Justice Benjamin Teiko Aryettey, told journalists that the programme was expected to review 140 cases of prisoners whose dockets had been provided by the police within the 2009/10 legal year.
Explaining the rationale to carry out the exercise at the prison, the Deputy Director in charge of the Nsawam Prison, Mr Chris Larvie, stated that the lack of vehicles to transport prisoners to the various courts was one of the logistic challenges faced by the prison service.
A Supreme Court judge, Ms Justice Rose Owusu, expressed the need for a special exercise under the project for female remand prisoners, explaining that, "We did not intentionally forget them, but only had the impression from the police that there was none".
Story: Matilda Attram, Nsawam
Remand prisoners at the Nsawam Prison heaved a sigh of relief when 10 special court sessions were held at the prison to review their cases, some of which have been pending for 10 years.
At the end of the exercise, which was carried out under the auspices of the Justice For All Project, 27 remand prisoners regained their freedom.
Other remand prisoners were granted bail, some were convicted and sentenced while a few cases were adjourned to the next hearing scheduled for June 22.
There were 2,356 male remand prisoners at the Nsawam Prison alone when auditing of remand prisoners was carried out in 2007.
The Justice for All Programme, dubbed ‘the Remand Review Project’, was initiated in 2007 to enhance justice delivery and foster the adherence to human rights.
A collaborative effort among the Attorney General’s Department, the Centre for Human and Civil Liberties (CHURCIL), a non-governmental organisation, the Ghana Police Service, the Prison Service, and the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), the Remand Review Project is also a mechanism intended to decongest the prisons.
Performing the opening session, the Chief Justice, Mrs Georgina Wood, observed that the high population of remand prisoners was a clear indication that the Judiciary had breached some provisions of the 1992 Constitution.
“Each one of us actively engaged in the administration of criminal justice has contributed to this anomalous situation. For this reason, the responsibility lies on us to collaboratively work to find a concrete solution this problem, which sadly thus constitutes a blot on our human right records,” she said:
According to her, the Judiciary, among other stakeholders and the general public, breached Articles 19(1) and (2) (c) of the 1992 Constitution, which provided some rights of an accused person before being judged.
The articles state that “(1) A person charged with a criminal offence shall be given a fair hearing within a reasonable time by a court”, while (2) (c) states that “A Person charged with criminal offence shall be presumed innocent until he is proved or has pleaded quilty.”
She further explained that in criminal jurisprudence, there were two types of offences, which demanded intervention by the courts prior to the commencement of the actual trial.
The types of offences, she said, were the bailable and the non-bailable offences.
Mrs Wood said the basic requirement of any trail court before which an accused person had been arraigned for trial in a criminal case was to ensure that the person, if released on bail, would appear on the adjourned date to stand trail.
“There is no reason why a court must remand an accused person in custody, pending trial if there are no valid reasons showing that such a person will not appear to stand trial,” she said.
She added that the real challenge, however, occurred during the non-bailable offences such as robbery, murder, narcotics, rape and defilement.
Mrs Wood said that even so the courts had held that notwithstanding the ouster of the time-honoured discretionary power to grant bail in such cases, bail would nonetheless be granted whenever it was demonstrated that there had been unreasonable delay in the trial or where the facts presented upon arraignment did not support the offence with which the accused had been charged.
The Chief Justice appreciated the need for the country to take her constitutional responsibilities seriously to ensure that criminal justice was delivered for the benefit of all.
She further mentioned safety, security and stability as elements that constituted a country’s ability to nurture development and good governance.
She said Ghana was a highly respected nation of hope in Africa and, therefore, must demonstrate a clear and sustained commitment to the rule of law and human rights.
She advised officials of the Judiciary to turn down unlawful demands from the public and rather acknowledge their judicial oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the nation to protect the rights of the citizens.
The Chairman of the project, Justice Benjamin Teiko Aryettey, told journalists that the programme was expected to review 140 cases of prisoners whose dockets had been provided by the police within the 2009/10 legal year.
Explaining the rationale to carry out the exercise at the prison, the Deputy Director in charge of the Nsawam Prison, Mr Chris Larvie, stated that the lack of vehicles to transport prisoners to the various courts was one of the logistic challenges faced by the prison service.
A Supreme Court judge, Ms Justice Rose Owusu, expressed the need for a special exercise under the project for female remand prisoners, explaining that, "We did not intentionally forget them, but only had the impression from the police that there was none".
Fire Alarm system in town
Published in the Daily Graphic on 20/05/2010, pg 16
Story: Matilda Attram
A new equipment to help control rampant fire outbreaks has been introduced into the country.
The equipment, known as the Early Warning Fire Alarm System, when installed, enables individuals and corporate institutions to take immediate precaution against damage to public buildings, factories, shops and homes in the event of fire outbreaks.
The equipment, which extracts power from a rechargeable battery, is expected to trigger an alarm when it first picks the signal of any imminent fire outbreak through an in-built sensitive device, which automatically sends information to its central operating system at the district office of the Ghana National Fire Service where the building is located.
The system has the ability of sending text messages about the imminent disaster to the mobile phones of individuals and neighbours in charge of such buildings at various locations at the time of the incident, at no cost.
Demonstrating how the equipment works, Dr Kenneth Afari, the Chief Executive Officer of Socio Computers Limited, the suppliers of the equipment, indicated that the equipment comes with an in-built camera which could demonstrate in pictures the cause of the fire, as well as expose criminals who might have caused the fire.
The whole idea, according to him, was to check the fire at its early stage before it spread to cause severe damage.
He said the initiative to introduce the equipment was based on the fact that most government buildings were empty during the night.
“This technology has been in major developed countries for some time now and has been re-engineered to suit the conditions of this country, as far as fire destruction is concern,” he stated.
Dr Afari presented some of the equipment, worth GH¢2,160,000, to the 144 already established district fire offices in the country and assured them of free training for selected firemen to operate the system.
The Chief Fire Officer, Mr William Brown Acquaye, described the equipment as a good mechanism that would help the country to protect its properties, as well as reduce the workload of the Fire Service.
He expressed appreciation to the management of Socio Computers Limited for its support.
Story: Matilda Attram
A new equipment to help control rampant fire outbreaks has been introduced into the country.
The equipment, known as the Early Warning Fire Alarm System, when installed, enables individuals and corporate institutions to take immediate precaution against damage to public buildings, factories, shops and homes in the event of fire outbreaks.
The equipment, which extracts power from a rechargeable battery, is expected to trigger an alarm when it first picks the signal of any imminent fire outbreak through an in-built sensitive device, which automatically sends information to its central operating system at the district office of the Ghana National Fire Service where the building is located.
The system has the ability of sending text messages about the imminent disaster to the mobile phones of individuals and neighbours in charge of such buildings at various locations at the time of the incident, at no cost.
Demonstrating how the equipment works, Dr Kenneth Afari, the Chief Executive Officer of Socio Computers Limited, the suppliers of the equipment, indicated that the equipment comes with an in-built camera which could demonstrate in pictures the cause of the fire, as well as expose criminals who might have caused the fire.
The whole idea, according to him, was to check the fire at its early stage before it spread to cause severe damage.
He said the initiative to introduce the equipment was based on the fact that most government buildings were empty during the night.
“This technology has been in major developed countries for some time now and has been re-engineered to suit the conditions of this country, as far as fire destruction is concern,” he stated.
Dr Afari presented some of the equipment, worth GH¢2,160,000, to the 144 already established district fire offices in the country and assured them of free training for selected firemen to operate the system.
The Chief Fire Officer, Mr William Brown Acquaye, described the equipment as a good mechanism that would help the country to protect its properties, as well as reduce the workload of the Fire Service.
He expressed appreciation to the management of Socio Computers Limited for its support.
SODEP trains 100 people in English, Maths
Published in the Daily Graphic on 24/05/2010, pg 11
Story: Matilda Attram
SOCIAL Development in Education Project (SODEP),a project aimed at improving the lot of rural schools and teachers, has trained 100 resource persons in some critical subject areas of basic schools.
The resource persons, who were trained in English Language, Mathematics, Science, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Citizenship Education and Early Child Development, would in turn train teachers.
Dubbed ‘SODEP-Nkabom,' the project is a collaborative effort between the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the Canadian Teachers Federation (CTF).
The project, which is also to upgrade education and development in deprived communities, has increased interest in education and it aids in the mobilisation of other forms of development that enhance the living standards of community members.
The project, which started in 2002, has helped to sharpen the content knowledge and teaching skills of teachers and has made members of such communities become responsive to their needs.
As part of the mechanisms to sustain the project, a one-day forum has been held in Accra to bring together participating organisations such as the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service, District, Municipal and Metropolitan Assemblies, Traditional Authorities, Parent-Teacher Associations among other organisations in education delivery to share their ideas and experiences in the performance of their duties.
In his welcoming address, the Deputy-General Secretary of GNAT, Mr John Nyoagbe, indicated that the project came in two sections, one of which used innovative approach to assist teachers who were posted to deprived schools to adapt to the circumstances and challenges posed by their schools and environment.
He said the approach recognised the significant and collaborative role of all and worked with 30 schools and communities in five regions to assist them to identify their development challenges, as well as prioritise them.
"The project has worked in communities in the Greater Accra , Ashanti, Brong Ahafo , Volta and the Northern regions where these resource persons also train classroom teachers in order to raise their teaching and leadership capabilities," he stated.
Mr Nyoagbe mentioned the lack of trained teachers, full education facilities, and the high level of ignorance in some communities as major challenges of the project and added "We are trying to find measures to combat our challenges and hope to move to the rest of the regions".
In a presentation, a representative of CTF, Mr Durris Dezanney, expressed satisfaction with some communities for their efforts in improving themselves, saying "This has attracted the interest of other development non-governmental organisation (NGOs)”.
Story: Matilda Attram
SOCIAL Development in Education Project (SODEP),a project aimed at improving the lot of rural schools and teachers, has trained 100 resource persons in some critical subject areas of basic schools.
The resource persons, who were trained in English Language, Mathematics, Science, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Citizenship Education and Early Child Development, would in turn train teachers.
Dubbed ‘SODEP-Nkabom,' the project is a collaborative effort between the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the Canadian Teachers Federation (CTF).
The project, which is also to upgrade education and development in deprived communities, has increased interest in education and it aids in the mobilisation of other forms of development that enhance the living standards of community members.
The project, which started in 2002, has helped to sharpen the content knowledge and teaching skills of teachers and has made members of such communities become responsive to their needs.
As part of the mechanisms to sustain the project, a one-day forum has been held in Accra to bring together participating organisations such as the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service, District, Municipal and Metropolitan Assemblies, Traditional Authorities, Parent-Teacher Associations among other organisations in education delivery to share their ideas and experiences in the performance of their duties.
In his welcoming address, the Deputy-General Secretary of GNAT, Mr John Nyoagbe, indicated that the project came in two sections, one of which used innovative approach to assist teachers who were posted to deprived schools to adapt to the circumstances and challenges posed by their schools and environment.
He said the approach recognised the significant and collaborative role of all and worked with 30 schools and communities in five regions to assist them to identify their development challenges, as well as prioritise them.
"The project has worked in communities in the Greater Accra , Ashanti, Brong Ahafo , Volta and the Northern regions where these resource persons also train classroom teachers in order to raise their teaching and leadership capabilities," he stated.
Mr Nyoagbe mentioned the lack of trained teachers, full education facilities, and the high level of ignorance in some communities as major challenges of the project and added "We are trying to find measures to combat our challenges and hope to move to the rest of the regions".
In a presentation, a representative of CTF, Mr Durris Dezanney, expressed satisfaction with some communities for their efforts in improving themselves, saying "This has attracted the interest of other development non-governmental organisation (NGOs)”.
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