Court remands unemployed for murder

BY HELENA SELBY

An unemployed, who allegedly robbed and stabbed the throat of a student, has been arraigned before an Accra circuit court. The accused person, Andrew Akpata, alias Outtara, is alleged to have murdered the deceased in cold blood at Madina, a suburb of Accra.

He has been charged with four counts of robbery, carrying offensive weapon, possessing narcotic drug and murder. He pleaded not guilty before the court, presided over by Mr. Eric Kyei Baffour. He has been remanded into custody to re-appear before the court on April 20, 2011.

The facts of the case indicate that on March 16, 2011, at about 10 am, the deceased, Bright Boadi travelled to Ashanti Mampong in the Ashanti Region to collect his school fees from his father.

According to the prosecutor, Inspector J.K. Anim, at about 2:15 a.m on March 17, 2011, the deceased returned to Madina, after receiving an amount of GH¢250.00 from his father as part payment of the school fees.

He told the court that about 50 meters to the deceased home, the accused person and his accomplice, who is now at large, attacked the deceased with a knife and robbed him of his mobile phone, valued at GH¢120.00 and a cash amount of GH¢250.00.

“The accused and his accomplice, having robbed the deceased of his belongings, stabbed him in the throat. The deceased who managed to reach his house, was rushed to the hospital but died shortly on arrival,” the prosecutor added.

He further mentioned that in the course of the investigation, the name of the accused person featured, leading to his arrest, adding that at the time of his arrest the accused person had in his possession 25 wrappers of dry leaves suspected to be Indian hemp and three jack knives and two scissors.

Inspector Anim said in his caution statement that the accused person admitted having formed a club where members contribute to the purchase of the suspected dry leaves.

The prosecutor asked the court to remand the accused in order for the police to have ample time to complete with the investigation.

Witches have right to live

by Helena Selby

The number of victims in the various witches’ camps in Northern Ghana appears to be increasing by the day, despite numerous campaigns by both non-governmental organisations (NGO) and the media. The existence of three camps in the three, namely the Upper East, Upper West and Northern, is helping to address the problem. Many accused of witchcraft are now insulated from the wrath of their own people, by being confined to these camps.

It is a shame that in a society like Ghana, where old age has always been revered, to be in the evening of one’s life is threatening to become a nightmare.

one of the yards of the witches camp

The vulnerable, especially, old and weak women, is the group of people who always fall victim when suspicion of the existence of a witch or wizard arises among a family or society. The belief of the people of the northern part of the country makes people attribute bad dreams, poor harvests, sickness and epidemics to witchcraft manipulation.

In many of these societies in the northern part of the country, apart from the victims being beaten, abused, and even driven out of the village, those accused of witchcraft are sometimes forced to drink unhealthy concoctions of herbal medicines to prove their innocence. In some extreme cases, the suspects are strangled to death.

Witches camps in the Northern Region of Ghana
The need to insulate those accused of witchcraft from the wrath of society, has occasioned the setting up of three camps in Northern Ghana. They are the Ngani camp in Yendi, the Kukuo camp in Bimbilla and the Gambaga camp.

According to the Southern Sector Youth and Women’s Empowerment Network (SOSYWEN), a non-governmental organisation who help women whose rights have been trampled upon, the Ngani camp consists of 750 women and 400 children, Kukuo camp has 130 women and 171 children, while the Gambaga camp consists of 86 women and 36 children.

Members of these camps are normally left on their own to fend for themselves without the help of any family member. As old as they are, they are required to undertake various tedious activities just to get their daily bread.

They have very unhealthy sources of water which puts their health at risk. The water available to them is stagnant water that has gathered on its own. Naturally, the water is dirty and unhealthy. They have no choice than to wait for the dirt to settle, before they are able to use the water for domestic use and drinking. They have to go through the trauma of all kinds of diseases that afflicts them, as the majority of them have not been registered on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) – A scheme that caters for the sick without them paying money at the various hospitals and health centres.
View of students from Nalerigu SHS

As a result of the alarming nature of the situation, day in and day out, many young people in the Nalerigu Senior High School, a second cycle institution close to the camp, are reported to have made it a policy of drawing attention to the plight of the inhabitants, in order to secure help for them. The students apparently feel that by getting help for the inmates, whose only crime, perhaps, is that most are in the evening of their lives, they would not be abandoned by society.

According to Alhassan Joseph, a final year student of the Nalerigu Senior High School, who is a regular visitor to the camp, counseling is one major need of the supposed witches and wizards, as well as those who may not be at the camp per se, but face discrimination on account of society deciding that they may be witches.

Alhassan would like the general society to be educated to understand that growing old does not necessarily invoke a witch or wizard on any individual. He would like the media especially, to mount a campaign to educate the populace not to maltreat those accused of witchcraft, as they may not necessarily be so.

“There should be no maltreatment of accused persons. People accused of witchcraft should not be persecuted. None of their freedoms should be taken away under any circumstances. The Holy Bible commands us not to judge the deeds of anyone, until we are all judged by the Creator, since there is no one who has never transgressed in life. Hence, suspects should be respected and treated like fellow human beings.”

The student would like to see more camps established in areas where the level of accusations of witchcraft is alarming. He says the few camps in Ghana, all located in the northern parts of the country, are not enough to protect the many old and infirm accused by their societies of practicing witchcraft.

“There are many villages and towns in which people are accused of witchcraft. Since all the existing witches camps are found in the northern parts of the country, some should be built in Southern Ghana, either by the government, or NGOs.

“There should be a national policy of aiding so-called witches in the various camps to learn some trade. Energetic inmates could be trained in carpentry, masonry, and other profitable ventures, especially, for male inmates. For the female, beads making, pottery, etc., could provide basic incomes for inmates.”

Such crafts, according to the student, would provide income for those who, because of man’s cruelty to the fellow person, find themselves confined in witches’ camps. .

Alhassan Joseph said it would be ideal if NGO’s and the general society advanced some form of financial support to these confined persons, who are wrongly identified as witches and wizards. Society ought to understand that witches or not, theses inmates have a constitutional right not to be deprived of any basic thing in life. To help minimise the belief in witchcraft, the media has to mount a vigorous campaign to disabuse the minds of the general society on the existence of witchcraft.

He said those accused of being witches and wizards should not be made to stay in camps for long periods. The motive behind this is to avoid single parenting, which may lead to social vices among children. Accused persons should be encouraged to live within to make the various families to stay together.

To Abdulai Yahuza Nantomah, in the first place, those who are already camped should not be made to suffer too much. He is not happy that in the Gambaga camp, for instance, the inmates are said to go into the bush on their own to search for firewood, in order to cook their meals. This, according to the student, was a problem, because of the advanced age of most of the inmates. It is not the very best that people in the evening of their lives are left to fend for themselves in the harsh climate of northern Ghana, he says.
He is looking forward to an appeal to the general public, philanthropists,

Church and Muslim organisations to come to the urgent aid of these camp inmates. According to Abdulai, children usually offer help to these inmates. He would like to see a situation where the number of hands in the various camps would be enough for them to be able to do the hazardous chores on behalf of the inmates.

In order to avoid the practice of these camp aides taking the law into their own hands and doing whatever they want, there should be rules and regulations governing the conducts of these helpers.
The necessary punishment should be meted out to those who take advantage and end up going contrary to camp rules and regulations.

In order to ensure peace and harmony among the supposed witches and wizards in the various camps, there should be moral and religious education, spiced with counseling by eminent church elders, and the eminent in society.

To discourage melancholic feeling among inmates and reduce the nostalgic feelings for home that these camp inmates may suffer, basic means of entertainment should be made available. Making inmates feel part of the general society, by exposing them to what obtains in the larger community, would help to eliminate quarrels, and the propensity to be unnecessarily aggressive, according to Abdulai.

Like Alhassan, Abdulai would also like to see the inmates go through some apprenticeship on how to eke out a living for themselves. That way, the so-called witches and wizards may not forever remain a burden on society.

Gov't fight against poverty not visible enough

By: Helena Selby

The world has never been as inventive and productive as it is today, every now and then, geniuses, intellectuals and experts bring about inventions and ideas to help develop the world.

There have never been many professions and careers like the world has today, as through the various inventions, many professions have been created, leading to the creation of more jobs. The availability of numerous jobs in this modern world which exceeds some time past, has never brought satisfaction to people of today, as the population of the world keeps growing, and technology and education taking over the olden days agriculture.

It is very strange that despite the fact that the world has never been rich as it is today, extreme poverty in the records of the world can be found today. Gone were the days when the only responsibility of man was to feed his household through the cultivation of crops, times have changed as technology and immense education have taken over the economical freedom of many people in the world, compelling people to spend more to attain a certain standard of life.

In Ghana, despite its rich natural resources, the majority of the people still face poverty and hardship, and the rapid urbanisation of its capital city still does not leave any trace of any good standard of living in the lives of the people.

It is about time the government supports the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) commitment in raising awareness to the fact that freedom from poverty is a fundamental human right.

The fundamental human right in democracy should not be only focused on the right to have a say and not being gagged, but the right to have a good standard of living. Records show that Ghana has developed its economy on a scale that could allow it to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) before the 2015 deadline, but as to if this scale will not only be a paper work, but as well have an impact on the people, is for the for government to decide.

Poverty in Ghana

According to the United Nations Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, 2001, “…poverty may be defined as a human condition characterised by sustained or chronic deprivation of the resources, capabilities, choices, security, and power necessary for the enjoyment of an adequate standard of living, and other civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights.” If this be the definition of poverty, then it can be said that many Ghanaians fall under that category of economic embarrassment.

The majority of the population, especially the youth, who are the stronghold of the economy, are deprived of job opportunities, making their capabilities and education go waste each passing day. The everyday increase in the number of educational institutions, and the limited creation of jobs to support educational qualification, is a great factor of emerging poverty among the youth in the future.

About 51% of Ghana’s poor population can mostly be found in the rural areas, and so far, the poorest regions in the country are the Upper West, Upper East and the Northern. The state of poverty in these regions has a direct impact on women and children, as women mostly are the caretakers of the household. They have to go through the plight of providing food for the table, despite the rate of food insecurity in the region. The poverty level in the rural areas always compels people from the rural towns to settle in the urban areas, which result into the urban areas being densely populated, hence putting pressure on the limited social amenities, and the rural areas becoming sparsely populated, making it difficult to find people to tap the resources in those areas.

Economic progress and its poverty effect on the people

According to statistics, the Ghanaian economy has grown at an average annual rate of 4.5 per cent over the past two decades. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth was 6.3 per cent in 2007. The agriculture sector, which contributed 34 per cent of GDP in 2007, remains the country’s major engine of economic growth.

The benefits of economic progress are dramatically evident in the fact that national poverty rates have been cut almost in half, from approximately 51.7 per cent in 1991-1992 to 28.5 per cent in 2005-2006. Poverty decreased by about 17 percentage points in urban areas, and by 24 points in rural areas. Ghana’s growth and poverty reduction rates are probably the best that have been achieved in all of sub-Saharan Africa over the past 15 years.

In spite of these statistics, which signify a progress in the standard of living of the people of Ghana, many Ghanaians still wonder where these figures are derived from, as they feel the furnace of the economy is rekindled everyday.

Many Ghanaians, due to lack of job opportunities, limited minimum wage, and increases in the prices of goods and services, makes it difficult for them to cope with the economy. The notion that the government has given the international world a good impression about the progress of the economy, a good standard of living seems to be a mirage for the people of Ghana.

Government’s contribution to poverty in Ghana

The rule of law has brought about great civilisation in the country, and in the eyes of the world. The existence of democracy in the country, which the country has to take advantage of to make progress, is rather being misused. The government always forgets that the alleviation of poverty cannot be done on a theoretical basis only, whereby the people cannot feel the impact.

It is a well known fact that for a developing country such as Ghana to reduce the plague of poverty in the country, invitations for investors is one of the bold steps in achieving that dream. However, the change of government, which is a sign of a democratically matured nation, seems to be destroying the nation’s chances of attracting investors.

The rate at which every new government takes delight in changing the policies of their predecessor, takes away the desire of people in investing in the country, as in most cases, the new approach of the new government might not be conducive for their investments.

The attitude of these governments has the tendency of pushing away potential investors, which in the long run, would make the citizens the ultimate losers. It is about time governments put aside political sentiments and concentrate on the good of the country.

It would be a good thing if every newly-appointed government continues the good work of the previous, and not introduce other policies which need to be started all over again, resulting in the waste of time and resources. The activity of every appointed government is to bring contribution to the progress of the nation, and not a contribution to the poverty level of the people.

Conclusion

Society and the government can never face the consequences of poverty. What will be dignity and pride of the country, if there is a rise in armed robbery, teenage pregnancy, internet fraud and prostitution, all as a result of poverty? The significance of democracy in a country will be of no use if the country poses all these social vices.

The significance of democracy will be of no use if the economy of a country is not established enough to give the people a better standard of living. It is the responsibility of the government to speed up its journey of poverty alleviation in the country.