June 18

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THE HIGH Court in Accra, presided
over by Justice Kofi Dorgu, has
adjourned hearing of the bail
application before it by lawyers of the
embattled Director of Obengfo
Hospital, Dominic Obeng Andoh and
Edward Amponsah to June 21.
The two accused persons, who are
currently in police custody for the
murder of the Deputy Director of the
National Entrepreneurship Innovation
Programme, Stacy Offei Darko, were
earlier refused bail by the Accra
Magistrate Court.
In court on Thursday, Jonathan
Dzaisu, one of the lawyers of the
accused persons were unable to move
their application as expected because
the Attorney General’s Department
was not served with the processes.
According to the court records, the
Attorney General's Department was
only served with the notice for hearing
the morning before the parties arrived
in court, with State Attorney Francis
Mullen Ansah, particularly surprised to
hear the case called in court.
Brief facts
The brief facts as were presented in
court by DSP Stephen Kwame Adjei
said the complainant, Dr Eli Atidpui, is
a Medical Director and the Registrar of
Medical and Dental Council, Accra.
According to him, Dr Obeng-
Andoh is also a medical practitioner
and medical director of Obengfo
Hospital, a private medical facility at
Weija-Accra.
DSP Adjei told the court that
during the month of July 2015, the
Medical and Dental Council, during a
routine monitoring exercise, received
information that the accused person
had failed to renew his annual
registration to practise as a doctor and
operate a private health facility since
2013, but continued to practise in his
Obengfo Hospital.
The Medical and Dental Council
reported the matter to the police for
investigation.
He told the court that on December
28, 2016, the police went to Obengfo
Hospital to affect his arrest, but met
him in the process of performing
certain medical procedures on a
witness in the case.
He said further investigations
revealed that Dr Obeng-Andoh had
News
DAILY
• Obengfo murder trial…
Court to hear bail
application on Jun 21
BY MUNTALLA INUSAH
muntalla.inusah@dailyheritage.com
also failed to license his health facility
which he was operating as required by
law.
He recounted that Dr Obeng-
Andoh was charged with the offences
to appear before the court on February
6, 2017, but he petitioned the Director
General of Criminal Investigations
Department (CID) on February 7,
2017 requesting for a review of the
investigation conducted by the police
CID based on which he was charged
and was to appear before the court.
DSP Adjei said the court process
was temporarily put on hold and the
case docket forwarded to the Attorney
General’s office for their perusal and
expert advice.
In a letter numbered
GR/PD/31/18 dated May 18, 2018,
the Attorney General’s office advised
that all charges earlier on preferred
against the accused be maintained and
he be arraigned before the court. He
was consequently warned to appear
before this honourable court.
DSP Adjei told the
court that, during
the month of July
2015, the Medical
and Dental Council
during a routine
monitoring exercise
received information
that the accused
person had failed to
renew his annual
registration to
practice as a doctor
and operate a
private health facility
since 2013, but
continued to
practice in his
Obenfo Hospital.
MR ISAAC
Swatson, an
officer at the
Computerised
School Selection
and Placement
System (CSSPS) under the Ghana
Education Service (GES), has said
the essence of the government,
through the Ministry of Education,
having a new policy of placing
children in senior high schools
formulated is to improve the
system.
Speaking recently at a workshop
for education directors and officers
on the operations of the CSSPS and
key guidelines for placing children
in senior high and technical schools,
Mr Swatson disclosed that, among
other guidelines, children will select
five schools and that, “children can
choose only one school in Category
A, two schools in Category B, four
schools in Category C, a
compulsory one school in Category
D and a maximum of five schools
in Category E.
“The categorisation of schools is
necessary to avoid the situation
where some schools are
oversubscribed as some other
SECURITY ANALYST Dr Kwesi
Aning has described as disturbing the
decision by the government to exclude
the Narcotics Control Board
(NACOB) and National Security from
inspection agencies at the ports.
Vice President Dr Mahamudu
Bawumia made the announcement last
Wednesday as part of what he said
were efforts to reform the paperless
ports system.
Per the reforms, the Food and
Drugs Authority, Customs Division of
the Ghana Revenue Authority and the
Ghana Standards Authority are to be
in charge of routine checks at the
ports.
Announcing the reforms last
Wednesday at the 2018 Accra Mall
Mobex Technology Expo, Dr
schools struggle to have their
vacancies for students filled. Let me
also inform you that there will not
be any placement for re-entry
candidates or children that
completed their junior high schools
in the previous years. They will have
to write the private Basic Education
Certificate Examinations (BECE)
and get qualified to be placed,” he
added.
HERITAGE, MONDAY, JUNE 18, 2018 WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH
New SHS placement policy is
to improve system — CSSPS
FROM ISSAHAKU
MOHAMMED, TAMALE
Alhaji Mohammed Haroon
Cambodia, the Northern Regional
Director of Education, who chaired
the workshop, gave the assurance
that his outfit would do all within
its means to ensure that this year’s
school placement by the CSSPS
would be very successful.
Mr Anthony Kwaku Amoah, a
public relations officer of the
Ghana Education Service, who was
also a resource person at the
workshop, urged the participants to
read and be abreast of the new
guidelines so as to effectively
disseminate the policy issues to
parents, children and the public.
“Let us take our time to read the
policy document well so that we can
tell parents, children and other
members of the general public what
the policy issues are and what is
Excluding NACOB from port checks is disturbing – Aning
BY KOBINA WELSING
•A district director of education asking a question at the workshop
•Dr Kwesi Aning, security analyst
Bawumia
stated that the reforms had become
necessary because some persons
within the import and export
ecosystem, including Customs officials,
were still influencing it through
various human interventions to enrich
themselves at the expense of the State.
“It is clear that notwithstanding the
new systems that have been
implemented, there are concerted
efforts to circumvent the paperless
system by both customs officials and
supposedly national security
operatives.
“I understand that some officials
at the port are demanding documents
from importers for stamping. This is
ridiculous and should not happen
under the new paperless regime,” he
said.
The reforms will take effect from
July 1, 2018, declared the Vice
expected of us in making this year’s
school placement one of the best, if
not the best, in the history of
CSSPS.”
Started in 2005, the CSSPS,
which is a secretariat of the
Secondary Education Division of
GES, places qualified candidates of
BECE in public senior high,
technical and vocational schools in
the country.
President
at the Expo on the theme: ‘Enhancing
Economic Prosperity through Retail
Technology and Financial Innovation.’
Speaking on the ‘Morning Starr’
programme on Starr FM Thursday, the
Director of the Faculty of Academic
Affairs & Research at the Kofi Annan
International Peacekeeping Training
Centre said the decision to exclude
NACOB and National Security sends a
disturbing signal about Ghana’s
commitment to security.
“Taking National Security and
NACOB out raises a lot of red flags
and sends a rather bad signal to our
partners in the world of the container
control programme…it might be
appropriate to go back to the drawing
board and look at the institution that
does the checks.”
Govt increases
student loans by 50%
BY KENT MENSAH
THE GOVERNMENT, through
the Ministry of Education, has
increased the financial allocations
to students enrolled on the
Student Loan Trust Fund
programme by 50%.
This is in fulfilment of the
New Patriotic Party (NPP)
Manifesto promise made in the
lead-up to the 2016 elections.
The then opposition NPP said:
“We will also abolish the payment
of utility bills by students. We will
also increase the amount of loans
under the Student Loan Scheme
and restructure to streamline its
administration to enhance
recovery of the loans.”
“The NPP will place emphasis
on the continuous linkage of
academia with industry and the
world of work to ensure
curriculum relevance, thereby
reducing graduate unemployment,”
it added.
A statement signed by the
Head of Public Relations at the
Ministry, Vincent Asafuah,
confirming the increase indicated
that an amount of GH¢
38,441,088.00 has been disbursed
as full payment to the National
Commission for Tertiary
Education for onward payment to
Principals Conference in respect
of the Colleges of Education
feeding, of which the Students
Loan Trust Fund is part.
The Chief Executive Director
of the Fund, Nana Agyei Yeboah,
said the government was
committed to ensuring that
hindrances to quality education
were alienated.
“Hitherto, the minimum
amount given to beneficiaries was
GH¢ 1,000.00 and it was capped at
GH¢ 2,000.00, which was directly
linked to needs assessment.
Government has subsequently
increased the minimum amount to
GH¢ 1,500.00 and maximum
GH¢3, 000,” he said.
The then
opposition NPP
said: “We will also
abolish the
payment of utility
bills by students.
We will also
increase the
amount of loans
under the Student
Loan Scheme and
restructure to
streamline its
administration to
enhance recovery
of the loans.”
•Nana Agyei Yeboah, Chief Executive Director
of the Student Loan Fund