They believe the committee, which is within the MASLOC set-up, would not be fair and equitable in their operation.

As a result, they have called for an external and neutral body to
conduct the investigations for the purposes of fairness, equity and expediency. The chiefs made the observation and recommendation in a press statement copied to DAILY GUIDE last Tuesday.

The three signatories of the statement include Torgbui Adza Wiah Kwesi II of Kpalime, Torgbui Asuo Kwesi V of Tongor and Torgbui Aku Dompeh XI of Kpeve.

About a month ago, the CEO of MASLOC was asked by the office of the President to proceed on leave following reports of misappropriation of funds brought against her, among others, her dealings with Amisgold Microfinance Service Limited; a company alleged to be owned by her husband.

The board chairman of MASLOC, Lieutenant Colonel (Rtd) Kaku Korsah also stated that contrary to widely held speculations, there was no financial loss to the state despite the discrepancies alleged to have been recorded in the outfit.

According to him, the money that was given out by the CEO Bertha Sogah, had been retrieved by the Committee that was set up to investigate the matter.

More so, the Board was waiting for the Committee’s report which should have been ready by now, before a definite statement would be made.

Before the committee concludes its work, the chiefs and people of the Kpalime, Tongor and Kpeve traditional areas, kinsmen of Bertha Sogah called for the replacement of the committee with an external and neutral committee on the suspicion of some conspiracy against the beleaguered MASLOC CEO for the ultimate principle of truth, fairness, equity and justice to prevail.

From Fred Duodu, Ho

The staggering firearms, including 55 double-barrel guns, 42 single-barrel guns, four locally-made pistols and two foreign revolvers, as well as four butts, 12 “AA” live cartridges and quantities of blacksmith equipment, were displayed at the regional police headquarters.

Speaking at a press briefing, DCOP Augustine Gyening said the seizure of the firearms indicated the number of guns held

by civilians. According to him, the weapons were traced back to two communities in the region and one community in the Brong

Ahafo Region. He mentioned the communities as Fumso in the Adansi North District, Ejisu in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality and Techiman.

According to the police chief, the threat that illegal guns posed to security in the country could not be overstated, appealing to members of the public to cooperate with law enforcement agencies. DCOP Gyening said the latest gun was retrieved from 33-year-old Collins Boadi Bonsu, who attempted to sell a foreign pistol for GH¢2,000 at Golden Tulip in Kumasi on May 22, 2013 around 2:00pm. The suspect was charged with attempting to sell firearm without license.

The regional police commander disclosed that the police arrested Kwadwo Dakanu, 42; John Gadasu, 45; Vincent Detse, 34 and Kwame Agbemator, 50. The suspects, he said, were arrested during a raid at their blacksmith workshops and residences at Fumso, Ejisu and Techiman.

Mr. Gyening maintained that the region was stable despite the recent violent crimes in Kumasi. According to the police commander, it would be erroneous for anybody to suggest that the city was volatile. Meanwhile, the police have stated that

they have arrested four persons suspected to be armed robbers who attempted to beat a policeman at a checkpoint at Dakwadwom.

DCOP Gyening identified the suspects as Daniel Apusiba aka Buffalo, 18, student; Dennis Kwaku Acheampong, 21, electrician; Akwasi Asamoah, 18, student, and 20-year-old Samuel Offei. He stated that the three suspects, after borrowing a locally-made pistol from the fourth suspect, Samuel Offei, hired the services of a vigilant taxi driver from Santase Roundabout with the view to rob fellow students who had organized a function at a popular hotel.

Their plans were revealed by the cabbie who became suspicious of their conduct. They were arrested at the police checkpoint where the pistol concealed in Daniel Apusiba’s trousers was retrieved. All the suspects are currently assisting the police in their investigation. DCOP Gyening appealed to the general public to take note of the various securityarrangements instituted in the metropolis.

FROM Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi

The courts fined the five pirates 500 penalty units each (300 million old Ghana cedis) or in default collectively serve 10 years in prison for reproduction and distribution of audio and visual works contrary to section 42(1) of the Copyright Act 690.

Briefing the court on Friday, May 17, Inspector Hanson Armah stated that the complainant Eric Tetteh and GHAMRO taskforce members together with the police stormed Osu, La,  37 Lorry stations and its environs and found the accused persons namely Bernard Amakye, Awal Mohammed, Owusu Gabriel, Andy Obeng and Opoku Maxwell with their laptops illegally downloading songs for commercial purposes. They were arrested, sent to the Tesano Police Station and subsequently charged and arraigned before court.

Four of the accused persons pleaded guilty with explanation, whilst the 2nd accused Mohammed Awal pleaded not guilty to charges preferred against them.

Prosecuting witnesses Emmanuel Adjei and Eric Tetteh stated in open court that it took the GHAMRO Taskforce over two weeks to secretly monitor the unlawful downloading and sales of musical works of several artistes including Sarkodie, Daddy Lumba, R2 Bees, Hannah Marfo and Akua Serwaa by the accused persons, adding that their illegal activities were captured in pictorial form which they used as evidence exhibited in open court.

Judge Antwi Barima stated that music piracy had destroyed the careers of several brilliant creators including the late Snr Eddie Donkor and Akwasi Ampofo Adjei, and it was time to mete out appropriate punishment to offenders to serve as a deterrent. He said the “guilty with explanation” pleas of four of the accused persons “could not see the light of day neither could their respective explanations hold water”, and that the “not guilty” plea of Mohammed Awal was “highly vexatious, unmeritorious and frivolous” in the light of irrefutable evidence of Awal in the act of illegally selling songs of artistes.

After stating that “he who does not punish evil commands it to be done”, the judge convicted and sentenced the accused persons. He then ordered that all infringing equipment used by the accused be instantly destroyed on the court premises under the supervision of the court registrar and the prosecutor, which was immediately carried out by crushing, burning and finally dumping at a rubbish dump near the court premises.

Present in court throughout the proceedings were GHAMRO Chairman Carlos Sakyi and board member Mark Okraku Mantey, who called the ruling a monumental victory for composers and producers, many of whom had gone bankrupt due to blatant robbery of their music in practically every part of the country.

They promised to continue waging a relentless war on piracy to bring prosperity and relief to music owners and investors in Ghana.

Police for terrorizing customers who visit the Abeka Lapaz Branch of Global Access Money Transfer, havebeen remanded by an Accra Circuit court.

Lance Corporal Obeng Darko aka Stylish, 29, and Lance Corporal Dasmani Faisal, 27, of 49 EngineerTraining School and 48 Engineer

Regiment respectively, together with Christopher Quainoo, 27, and Isaac Larbi, 25, unemployed civilians,

were remanded into police custody to re-appear on June 4, 2013.

A provisional charge of kidnapping and robbery were preferred against them at the court presided over by Patience Anokye.

The suspects were nabbed on May 18, 2013 after police spotted a suspect Isaac Larbi, who made phone calls at the bank while observing the movement of customers.

Police became suspicious and arrested the suspect for questioning. The last number dialed on his mobile phone was called and when the person picked the call, he was asked to come over since everything was ready. Within some minutes, the two suspects, Lance Corporals Obeng and Dasmani came to the place in a taxi together with Christopher.

They were immediately whisked away to the station for questioning by the police. Preliminary investigations

revealed that the two soldiers and the civilian came to the bank to undertake nefarious

activities.

The suspects later confessed robbing people of various amounts of money but pleaded for mercy since that was their fourth time.

According to the suspects, they only had GH¢350 from their first victim and out of the money, Isaac was given

GH¢50 as his share of the booty.With the second and third operations, suspect Isaac received GH¢50 and GH¢70 as

his share but refused to mention the amount they took from the second and third victims.

The two soldiers were later linked to the abduction of a 25-year-old staff of the same bank on May 11, 2013. The soldiers searched the

victim for money and pushed him out of the car upon reaching Apenkwa near Achimota. A report was later lodged with the police for further investigations. Chief Inspector Dery, the prosecutor in charge of the case, told the court that the case is still under investigation

BY Linda Tenyah

Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Michael Omari Wadie.

The issue concerns a photograph in circulation on various social media networks, especially Facebook, in which the picture

of a man, who seems to have been ‘photo-shopped’ to look like President Mahama, is seen having sex with a woman at a supposed office.

Though Mr Wadie has denied being the brain behind the picture in circulation, a pro-NDC group, calling themselves Coalition

for the Protection of Individual Liberties and Constitutional Rights (COPCOR), claimed “the said picture has been doctored

by a former Constituency Chairman and former National Chairmanaspirant of the NPP by name Michael Omari Wadie.” However, a statement issued in Accra yesterday called for the arrest of the NPP man. The statement, which was signed by Ransford Vanni-Amoah, Abraham Ferguson Jnr, Ali Dawud, Charles Agyemang, Ernest Gyamfi and one Theresa Awuni said, “We are calling on the Ghana Police Service, Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and the National Security to call Omari Wadie for further questioning and investigation and if possible, prosecute him.” It is not clear the police, BNI and the National Security would take up the issue since Omari Wadie has not received any police invitation. But leadership of the NDC group indicated their readiness to “provide the security services with concrete evidence when called upon to assist” while calling on the Christian Council of Ghana, Muslim Community and all well-meaning Ghanaians to condemn what they described as a ‘criminal act’ since according to them “it is not in the interest of national unity and cohesion”.

The group has also asked the NPP as a party to condemn this act and disassociate the party from such an act, as a proof that

they do not endorse such actions from a person they suspect to be one of their own. Mr Wadie also issued a counter statement in which he made an outright denial of being the manufacturer of the picture in question. “I vehemently refute the allegations and state categorically that I am not the source of the images,” he noted. Apart from that, the former NPP Chairman for the Ayawaso West Wuogon insisted “I am not the camera man who filmed them, I have never been to President Mahama’s office or the location where this was filmed, I am not an I.C.T expert and I am not a graphic designer or animation expert.”

He suspected the picture in circulation was an insider job; emanating from the NDC itself and, therefore, asked for his name to be disassociated with it, insisting that “if truly this is edited and meant to embarrass the President, we should just identify the girl and catch the real culprits behind this by tracing their Internet Protocol address. “We should all condemn all such distasteful and sordid action in our body politics”, reiterating his position, “I am not responsible for the picture be it original or edited; I refute and debunk the allegations the NDC has levelled against me,” he added.

By Charles Takyi-Boadu

This, he said, was in view of the fact that “the litigation, almost a quarter of a century old, continues while SSNIT and Duraplast and BAT continue to occupy or support the occupation of property B.A purchased and developed and used to contribute to Ghana’s economic and business development and success”.

This attracted expressions of ‘aw’ by the congregation. Present were former Presidents Jerry John Rawlings and John Agyekum Kufuor who sat right in front the pulpitfrom which Bernard read the biography of his late father nearly moving to tears. Others included members of the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration and National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration including Hackman Owusu Agyemang, Isaac Osei, Felix Owusu Agyepong, Sheik I.C

Quaye, Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu and his wife, Betty Mould Iddrisu, Alex Segbefia and a host of others.

Tribute

The widow

In a brief tribute to the late B.A Mensah, former President Kufuor described him as “an entrepreneur of the highest order; one of whose vision and foresight allowed him to see opportunities where others were doubtful.”

He spoke of the late B.A Mensah, whom he preferred to call ‘Rock of Ages’ as a man who “was able to turn his dreams into reality, and from a very humble background, he started to create an industrial empire at a time when doing business was alien to most of his compatriots.”

Apart from being shocked when the news of the death got to him, Mr Kufuor said “my sadness was also because the viciousness of politics in our part of the world prevented B.A, despite his many accomplishments from attaining his full potential in the business world.”

But for the harsh contradictions of the politics in the country, the former President noted with emphasis that “B.A and the likes of Appenteng-Mensah of Panbros Salt, Siaw of Tata Brewary,Kofi Owusu of Kowus Motors and a few others in that clique would have been to Ghana what Rockerfeller, Carnegie Morgan, Ford and Vanderbilt were to the industrial development of the United States.

Unlike his colleague, former President Kufuor, Mr Rawlings did not get anopportunity to speak on the occasion but was dully acknowledged as present at the event. Sermon was delivered by Most Reverend Dr Justice Ofei Akrofi, Aglican Bishop of Accra. Soon after the service, the mortal remains of the late B.A Mensah was dispatched to his hometown, Kumawu where the burial and funeral are scheduled to take place.

BY Charles Takyi-Boadu

He said the outcome of the petition hearing has the potential of threatening national peace and cohesion, the overstretched security system, constitutional paralysis, and paralysis of central and local government machinery.

He feared the outcome also has the latent of political revenge, poisoned political atmosphere that could spill over into Election 2016, tarnished integrity and weakened legitimacy of the Electoral Commission (EC) and major political reversals.

Dr Jonah made the observation in Accra at a roundtable discussion organized by the Institute of Economic Affairs Thursday on the theme: “Post-electoral disputes resolution: Fostering peace, national cohesion and reconciliation after the Supreme Court ruling”.

According to him, the outcome of the petition hearing has the tendency of creating deep seated distrust for the EC, stressing that the remedy would be a thorough reform of the architecture of electoral governance in Ghana.

He added that in the mist of all this upheavals, the energy and resources of the security forces might be stretched to its limits. He therefore urged civil societies and faith-based organizations to educatetheir members to accept the Supreme Court’s ruling in order to promote national unity and stability.

He called on the media to avoid provocative discussions that could inflame passions and cautioned the parties to avoid victory celebrations and wild jubilations.

Dr Jonah said civil societies must maintain their neutrality and should congratulate the two major parties for keeping Ghana’s peace throughout the hearing and urged them to continue after exhibiting that after the verdict.
He also appealed to Ghanaians not to undermine the judiciary by attacking its integrity.

The roundtable discussion was attended by leading political leaders, academia, journalists, legal practitioners, and a cross section of the public.

A total of $16,500, an equivalent of GH¢34,650 was stolen from Fredi Patric, a Bulgarian project manager with Consul Ghana Limited who resides at Osu.

The house help, Esther Lamptey, 21, resides at Nungua and is believed to have stolen the foreign currency in bits between the months of April and May 2013.

Superintendent Kwesi Annor Arhin, Osu District Police Commander (DPC) briefing the DAILY GUIDE said the complainant called the suspect on May 17, 2013 at about 8:00am when he discovered that his money was missing.

The suspect who was called together with another person admitted the offence when she was questioned about the missing money.

“She however said she only stole some dollars and took it to the forex bureau where she received GH¢20,000 as the cedi equivalent.”

The district commander noted that a formal complaint was therefore lodged with the Osu police which led to the arrest of the suspect.

In a statement to the police, the house help admitted committing the offence and an amount of GH¢1,500 was retrieved from her.

Though she said she used GH¢2,000 out of the money to pay for the medical treatment of her sick mother, the police retrieved a wardrobe, double door fridge, television, ceiling fan, microwave oven, deck which she is believed to have spent the money on.

She had also rented accommodation at the cost of GH¢2,600 for her boy friend identified as Raymond Borteir Mensah, an electrician at Nungua.

The boyfriend, 27, who was later picked up by the Police, has been charged with abatement of crime and they are to be put before an Accra circuit court.

Superintendent Arhin cautioned people who employ the services of house helps especially foreigners to dig into the background of such people.

By Emelia Ennin Abbey

There was no mistaking Michael Adebolajo, their ‘bright and witty’ classmate from a devoutly Christian family.

They remembered his smile, him studying hard, taking the bus to school and playing football with his mates.

But, his athletic frame aside, he bore no resemblance to the ghastly figure now haunting the nation’s television screens.

For despite spouting rhetoric about supposed British crimes in ‘our lands’, Adebolajo is a British citizen born in London.

His mother and father are hard-working Nigerian immigrants from an academic family in West Africa who settled in London in the early 1980s. A Christian couple, they believed in assimilating into British life, and Michael seems to have forged easy friendships with schoolmates of all colours and creeds.

Virtually all the friends on his Facebook page have traditional British names such as Louise, Kelly, Robert, Craig, Gemma, Lauren and Paul, to name a few. Among them is Matthew Selt, now a professional snooker player.

He was ‘just a lovely, lovely guy’, in the words of former classmate Stephen Cavalier – who, as a serving PC in the Metropolitan Police – could scarcely have followed a different path.

Speaking at his home in Essex yesterday, Mr Cavalier said: ‘It seems odd to say it now, after the events of yesterday, but I remember him as just a lovely, lovely guy.

‘I knew Michael at Marshalls Park School in Romford when we were teenagers. He was a good sportsman and just an all-round nice guy.’

He said he was no longer close to Adebolajo, who had requested they become ‘Facebook friends’ a few years ago.

‘As soon as I saw the news last night I immediately recognised it was Michael. I was in shock really when I saw him.’

Adebolajo’s dark side seems to have been awakened in his mid-teens, around the time Tony Blair was sending British troops into Afghanistan and Iraq.

He descended into a world where he was consumed with jihadism and later joined several Islamist groups banned in Britain because they are considered so extreme.

Radicalised by the likes of hate preacher Anjem Choudary, he fell into petty crime. Alarmed by the changes they saw in their son, his parents moved the family to Lincolnshire to make a fresh start.

But it was too little, too late, to save their first-born from an ugly descent.

Friends said he became a heavy cannabis user after the move. One told the Daily Star: ‘His whole life was about cannabis. He said it expanded his mind.’

Adebolajo is also believed to have experimented with other drugs.

By 2003, he began calling himself Mujaahid – meaning ‘one who engages in jihad’. By 2006, he was allegedly marching with Islamic fanatics bearing placards exhorting: ‘Behead those who insult Islam’.

Last year, it is believed, police stopped him travelling to Somalia to fight alongside Al-Shabbab fanatics – the group behind the 2011 kidnapping of Judith Tebbutt and murder of her husband David.

Michael Olumide Akinbiyi Adebolajo was born on December 10, 1984, at Kings College Hospital in Lambeth, South London.

His Nigerian-born father, Anthony, was a student at the time, and went on to become an NHS nurse.

His mother, Tina, the niece of a university law professor in Benin, West Africa, was a housewife but she too dedicated herself to public duty by becoming a social worker.

They had a second boy, Jeremiah, 22 months later and then two daughters, and soon after the family moved to Romford in Essex, where Adebolajo attended Marshalls Park school from 1996 to 2001, and then Havering Sixth Form College for his A levels.

‘He was a Christian. A nice, normal guy. All his friends were white and used to go round to each other’s houses all the time,’ a former friend said.

Another classmate, Simon Collings, 25, said: ‘His family were very Christian. Him and his siblings are all religiously named – his brother Jeremiah and his sisters Blessing and Christiana. He was a clever guy.’ A woman purporting to be Adebolajo’s sister Blessing told the Romford Recorder newspaper yesterday: ‘We didn’t know he was going to do this.’

Schoolmate Darren Marsh added: ‘He was always a good guy at school and [would] do anything for anyone.’

James Smith said: ‘I’m not sure I quite believe this. I sat next to him in Sociology at college’, and Michaela Payne said, ‘As soon as I saw the news I almost fell off my chair.’

Neighbours of the family remembered them as friendly and welcoming churchgoers. But Graham Silverton, 63, who has lived in the street for 25 years, said neighbours had a particularly bad experience with Adebolajo when he was a teenager.

He said one of the neighbours’ children, a teenage girl, had gone to the Adebolajos door to retrieve a ball kicked into their garden and was insulted and punched by Adebolajo.

Another said the teenager was inviting groups of friends to sit in the garage and listen to loud music with ‘lots of beer’.

According to Choudary, Adebolajo embraced Islam around the age of 15 or 16. ‘I knew him as Mujaahid. He attended our meetings and my lectures,’ the preacher boasted.

After A levels, Adebolajo attended the  University in Greenwich, South-East London, and lived in student accommodation in the borough which has a large Muslim population.

He is believed to have attended the nearby Lewisham Islamic Centre mosque, which police visited yesterday. In 2006, the mosque’s cleric Shakeel Begg was recorded urging students to wage jihad against Israelis in Palestine.

Despite his Muslim beliefs, Adebolajo fell into petty crime including stealing mobile phones, and is understood to have spent a short spell behind bars for violent behaviour. On his Facebook page, he wrote recently: ‘Mostly HMP [prison]. I have been a naughty boy but don’t tell anybody. Nowadays I’m a personal trainer.’

A friend said: ‘Michael used to preach a lot about Islam. He told me he converted in jail.’

Adebolajo’s family lived in Romford until around 2004, when they moved to Lincolnshire. It is unclear if his parents are still a couple, or if they divorced around this time.

There was no answer at the five-bedroom detached village home in Saxilby, near Lincoln, where Adebolajo’s father, Anthony, is believed to live.

Last week, Adebolajo was spotted with his alleged accomplice preaching on the street outside Poundland in Woolwich town centre. For whatever reason, he decided words were not enough.

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