Baba Yara Stadium is now ready for CAN 2008.


Thursday, August 21, 2008

Barman testifies against Loving Cee. In fraud case

A prosecution witness in the case involving William Des Bordes a.k.a. Loving Cee, a Kumasi based radio presenter who is facing trial for defrauding by false pretences has told the Ashanti New Town Circuit Court that, the accused physically attacked the hotel manager by pushing her off when she demanded that the accused settled all his bills before leaving the hotel premises on the day he was checking out.
Gyasi Muller, a bar man at the Cedar Crescent Hotel who was testifying when the case came up for hearing on Monday August 18, 2008 said that the accused was checking out of the hotel on June 19, 2008 when the incident happened.
He said the accused arrived at the hotel premises in the company of a friend who was driving a pick-up vehicle in which they packed the accused’s personal belongings.
He said the manager of the hotel; Ruth Naa Bekoe demanded payment after the accused had appended his signature to his bills.
He said he was at the bar when he heard exchanges between the manager and the accused over the unpaid bills since the bar was close to the reception.
He said he went to the reception and heard the accused saying that the hotel manager would hear from him later since his mother’s house was nearby and close to the hotel and that there was no way that he would abscond.
He said the accused retorted that the hotel would hear accordingly from him but said the manager also replied that she did not know the accused in person and since he checked in as an individual at the hotel, he needed to settle all his bills before he moved out of the hotel.
The witness said the accused then moved towards the car park and the hotel manager followed suit but said the accused pushed the hotel manager away and threatened to beat her up.
He said the accused then zoomed out of the hotel premises in his car and after that, the hotel staff tried to prevent the friend of the accused from also driving off with the pick-up, in which the accused’s personal belongings had been packed into.
The witness said the friend of the accused forcibly screeched the car out of the hotel premises causing a stone to roll from the tyres of the car to hit an eight-month-old daughter of the hotel manager, resulting in a cut on the cheek of the little girl.
During cross examination, counsel for the accused wanted to know how long the witness had worked at the hotel to which the witness answered he has worked there for two years.
Counsel put it to the witness that he only worked at the bar and was not the one who determined the bills of customers at the hotel.
The counsel also said that the accused had been civil in all his dealings at the hotel and that he never said the hotel manager would hear from him later on the day he was checking out of the hotel.
Counsel said the accused was rather challenging the manager that a quantum of the payments he had made at the hotel had not been deducted from his bills.
He said the accused never pushed the hotel manager and also never said that his mother’s house was nearby and that he would not abscond and that they would hear from him later.
The case was adjourned to September 5, 2008.
William Des Bordes a.k.a. Loving Cee is in court answering a charge of defrauding by false pretences after he lodged at the Cedar Crescent Hotel in Danyame, Kumasi between December and June 2008 with his wife and two children. He is said to have piled up a substantial bill for the six months stay at the hotel, deceived the hotel management and paid part of his bills leaving him with part. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
On his first appearance in court, he was remanded into one week prison custody by the Ashanti New Town Circuit Court.
He however spent only one night in prison following an appeal filed by his lawyers at the High Court to secure bail for him the following day.

Cocaine: Man, 34, Under Guard At Hospital



A 24-hour police guard has been placed on a 34-year-old man at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi, where 73 thumb-size pellets of a whitish substance suspected to be cocaine were removed from his stomach.

Mohammed Joojo Gyimah, a native of Achiase in the Kwabre District of the Ashanti Region and a labourer in Barcelona, Spain, reported at KATH with stomach pains after swallowing the pellets.

Doctors on duty quickly alerted the police before performing surgery on him to remove the pellets when he was rushed there.

All the pellets have since been removed and he is still on admission. It was detected that two of the substances burst in his stomach, which caused the discomfort.

The suspect reportedly told the police that he attempted to smuggle the substance to Barcelona in Spain but had to abort his plans upon arriving at the Kotoka International Airport, since he experienced severe stomach upset and felt dizzy.

He said he came to Ghana from Spain about five months ago and that a lady friend of his in Spain asked him to send the substance along on his return.

He said he met one Asare, a native of the Brong Ahafo Region, at a place near the Prempeh College in Kumasi where the said Asare supplied him with the substance to be taken to Barcelona for a fee of 2000 euros, while his airfare was taken care of.

He said Asare accompanied him to Accra and on their way to the airport, they stopped somewhere for him to swallow the substances but when he arrived at the precincts of the airport, he experienced severe stomach upset and felt dizzy so he aborted the journey and quickly returned to Kumasi in an attempt to get the pellets removed.

He said he was not successful in getting someone to help him until he collapsed and was rushed to KATH by members of his household.

The Ashanti Regional Police Commander, DCOP Kwaku Ayesu Opare-Addo, who confirmed the story, said the Drug Law Enforcement Unit of the police received the information about the incident on Wednesday, August 13, 2008 and quickly rushed to the hospital.

He said when they arrived, the suspect was in critical condition under observation at the Intensive Care Unit.

He said a 24-hour guard was placed on the premises of the hospital until all the pellets were removed the following day.

Inculcate reading habit in children


Newly appointed Kumasi Metropolitan Director of Education, Mrs Gladys Amaning says her vision was to promote reading skills at the basic level of education in Kumasi.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic Mrs Amaning said improving reading at the primary level was very instrumental in enabling pupils to have a grasp over the English language.
“I believe if we are able to inculcate reading in the children at their preliminary stages, then we stand the chance of making them excel in all fields of their endeavour”.
Mrs Amaning spoke to the Daily Graphic on her vision as a new Kumasi Metropolitan Director of Education. She assumed office in June 2008.
There have been calls for intensified supervisory activities in schools, so as to eliminate all impediments that contribute to falling standards.
A new methodology for the teaching and learning of the English language has been launched by the International English Language Teaching Commission. The commission seeks to replace the present methodology which it considers cumbersome and full of technicalities.

The falling standards in the English language and education in general have been attributed to the inability of students to express themselves in simple English and understand examination questions posed.
Mrs Amaning said teachers’ inability to instruct properly in the language makes the situation even more alarming.
“For a start, we are beginning cluster based training for all teachers in September and I know for sure that in a year’s time we would start seeing results”, she said.

Mrs Amaning who started her teaching career in 1976 after completing a Diploma in Home Economics at the Specialist Training College in Winneba, now University of Education Winneba (UEW) said it had always been her conviction to help improve upon reading skills of students thus leading to an improved spoken and written English language.
She said science students for instance hold the conviction that they needed to be excused a bit when it came to English language.
This is a wrong perception since all students need to be able to express themselves in simple English and understand examination questions posed, she said.
Mrs Amaning’s first posting in her teaching career started at the Bagabaga Training College in Tamale where she spent a year and later moved to the Ashanti region.
She thought as a home economics tutor at the Atwimaman Secondary School (now Afua Kobi Senior High) from 1977 to 1980 and at the Technology Sec School from 1980 to 1992.
She was promoted to the position of an Assistant Director in Ghana Education Service (GES) and posted to the Ashanti regional office as a Home Economics Organiser where she served from 1992 to 1994.
She went back to school to obtain a Bachelor in Home Economics in 1997 and returned to the Ashanti regional education inspectorate division where she claimed she realised a falling standard of education at the basic school level.
“I saw there was a great challenge at the basic school level. Supervision was very low and it was as if no one cared about the falling standards”, she said.
She said she told the then Ashanti Regional Director of Education that she wanted to be posted to the basic level to go and help.
“At that point many people did not understand why I wanted to move from the regional office to the basic level but I embraced myself and was posted to the State Experimental School”.
“My vision was to find out the reason for the falling standards and I saw it was because of poor supervision. The students could not read so I decided to create a library on campus and asked each student to buy a story book “.
It wasn’t easy at that time I faced a lot of opposition and there was even an article in The Pioneer newspaper with allegations that I was squandering monies at the State Experimental School so I was invited by the BNI.
Mrs Amaning said she managed to move on with her vision and within one term, a student had read about 100 story books. “The children became interested in reading and within the eight years that I spent at State Experimental, standards improved tremendously at the school”, she said
She continued her education at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) where she pursued a Masters in Education Administration and completed in 2006. She was then posted to the Sekyere West in Ashanti as a District Director of Education, becoming the first basic school head to rise directly to the position of a Director.
She continued her campaign of promoting reading there and went to London to learn about methodologies in teaching English language at the basic level.
From there she came back to Mampong, formed a team of teachers to start teaching kindergarten pupils on how to read based on the experiences she had in London.
“I was shocked to see how the KG pupils were attacking words when we introduced the methodology to them”.
It was whiles serving at Mampong that she was transferred to Kumasi as Metro Director. Mrs Amaning, 56, is a native of New Tafo in the Eastern region and is married with six children.

"Wee" dealer arrested


The police in Kumasi have busted a suspected Indian hemp “wee” woman dealer who was conveying a large quantity of the stuff from Kumasi to Bolgatanga in the Upper East region.
The woman, Joyce Nketia was apprehended at the Bolga Lorry station at Krofrom on Monday in possession of the dried leaves suspected to be “wee”.
The stuff were in three separate travelling bags.
The suspect was arrested upon a tip off to the Tafo police that someone was trying to transport Indian hemp to Bolgatanga.
The police proceeded to the Bolga Lorry station at Krofrom and saw three travelling bags on the ground.
When the police asked for the owner, Joyce Nketia owned up and on interrogation as to the contents, she stated that the bags were given to her by one Akwasi of Kwadaso to be taken to Bolgatanga.
Inspector Yusif Mohammed Tanko of the Ashanti Regional Police Public Relations Unit said she was subsequently arrested for investigations and when the three bags were forcibly opened, they were found to contain quantities of dried leaves suspected to be cannabis.
He said the suspect later took police to a wooden kiosk at Kwadaso where she claimed the supplier lived but Akwasi was nowhere to be found.
The Police Inspector said the exhibits would be sent to the Police Forensic Laboratory for analytical examination.

Lover butchers girlfriend in ksi

A KUMASI-based carpenter who could not bear the pain of losing his lover to another man is alleged to have butchered the woman with a machete at Fante New Town in Kumasi. A few weeks before the gruesome murder, the deceased, Sabina Amoh, 23 and a seamstress was said to have separated from the boyfriend, whose name was given as Kofi Saul Campbell, and the deceased’s pastor was intervening for her to give the boyfriend a second chance. However, when Sabina heard a knock on her door this morning (Friday) and opened the door to find Kofi, little did she know that the he had hatched a plan to kill her. Relations of Sabina told the Daily Graphic that the deceased responded to Kofi’s call after the latter had knocked on her door at about 5am and the two moved out of the house. Moments later, Sabina’s body was discovered lying nearby a refuse dump, close to the house bleeding profusely. She had sustained deep machete wounds on both ears and cheek and was lying in a pool of blood with little life in her. She was rushed to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) where she was pronounced dead. The body had since been deposited at the mortuary and the matter reported to the police. Campbell who was said to be a coffin maker at Fante New Town near the Labour offices where the incident happened was yet to be apprehended by the police for questioning.
He is said to be a native of Enyan Manmu whilst the deceased was also a native of Mankessim, all in the Central region.
Lydia Amoh, a senior sister to the deceased, said the two had been going out for the last two years and coexisted happily until a misunderstanding erupted between them recently. She said the matter was however sent before Sabina’s pastor who was trying to solve the issue amicably.

Loving Cee returns from prison to yob

Kumasi radio presenter, Loving Cee, could not have told a bigger lie when he denied on various radio stations last week that he had never been to prison.
Indeed, according to prison sources, Loving Cee a.k.a. Willian des Bordes, was taken to Kumasi Central Prison on Wednesday July 16, 2008 to begin a one week remand prison term slapped on him by an Ashanti New Town Circuit Court when he made his first appearance on a fraud charge.
Loving Cee however spent only one night in prison following an appeal filed by his lawyers at the High Court to secure bail for him the following day.
When he eventually resurfaced in court last week Wednesday, Loving Cee was to answer a charge of defrauding by false pretences after he lodged at the Cedar Crescent Hotel in Danyame, Kumasi between December and June 2008 with his wife and two children. He is said to have piled up a substantial bill for the six months stay at the hotel, deceived the hotel management and paid part of his bills leaving him with GH¢5940. He is also alleged to have engaged the hotel manager, Ruth Naa Bekoe, in a row over his unpaid bills on the day he was checking out of the hotel. The matter was reported to the police and subsequently sent to court. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The prosecution, led by Inspector Margaret Anhwere Mensah told the court presided over by Mr Owusu Afriyie that the accused (William Des Bordes) enjoyed various services at the hotel including laundry, food and drinks.
Giving evidence in court Ruth Naa Bekoe, the hotel manager said that the accused checked in at the hotel on December 25, 2008 and stayed there with his wife and two children (boys). The witness said even though the hotel rooms at Cedar Crescent went for GH¢70 and GH¢65 respectively per day, she agreed to give the room to the accused at a discounted rate of GH¢55 to which the accused made a deposit of GH¢100 with the explanation that he was staying for three nights. She said the accused did not leave the hotel when the three nights elapsed and continued to stay there till January 20, 2008 piling up a bill of GH¢2017.20 which included food and drinks as well as accommodation. The witness said she however asked the accused to pay just GH¢2000 to offset all his indebtedness as of that time to which the accused paid. However, the witness said the accused did not check out of the hotel and continued to stay there with the explanation that he had been detailed by Deutsche Welle (DW) Radio to cover the 2008 African Cup of Nations, hence he would stay for a while.
The accused further told the hotel management that DW Radio would be paying his bills so they should give him some time to take the money from them for onward payment.
The witness said she told the accused that, he checked in as an individual and that the hotel did not have any contract with DW Radio or the accused person’s current employers, Angel FM, so he should be paying his bills himself.
She said Des Bordes later paid GH¢500 and GH¢400 respectively on separate days in February to offset part of his indebtedness but he continued to stay at the hotel. She said the accused did not pay any money to the hotel from then on until May 10, 2008 when he paid GH¢1000 and June 3, 2008 when he paid GH¢500.
Prior to that, she said anytime they demanded money from him, he requested that one of the hotel staff should go with him to the office or to town for him to get money for them but on all occasions the hotel staff returned to the hotel without any money.
She said the accused on all the occasions abandoned the person he went with to town and the person had to find his way back to the hotel without the money. The witness said at the end of the month of May, she told the accused that she had received a contract to rent out all the rooms at the hotel and that the people who had rented it would be checking in on June 21, 2008 so she would want the accused to vacate his room by then. She said the accused subsequently asked her to prepare his bills for him so as to enable him settle it before he left to which she did and presented him with a bill of GH¢6940 as of June 18, 2008 to which the accused accepted and put his signature against the bill. The witness said the following day on June 19, 2008 the accused came to the hotel with a pick up and a friend and started packing his stuff into the car. She claimed she went to enquire about the payment of the bill and the accused responded that he would sort it out later but she claimed she refused to accept that explanation saying she needed to collect the money since the accused checked in at the hotel as an individual and needed to settle all his debts before he moved out. She said the exchanges resulted in a row and the friend of the accused moved the pickup out of the hotel premises, screeching in a manner that caused a stone to hit and injure an eight-month-old daughter of the witness. The witness said the matter was reported to Ridge Police Station and a medical form was issued for the little girl to be taken to hospital.
She said the matter was later transferred to the Central Police station where the accused did not accept the bill presented to him and felt he was being cheated. She stated that the police commander at the Central Police Station tried to resolve the matter and asked that if the accused claimed he did not accept the bill, then he should go back to the hotel and sit down with them and go through the bill to iron out the rough edges. She said the accused later paid GH¢1000 to the police as part of his indebtedness and boycotted all other meetings to resolve the matter until the matter came to court. Last Wednesday (August 6, 2008) when the matter was called in court the manager of the hotel, Ms Ruth Naa Bekoe who had earlier given evidence was cross examined by counsel for the accused, Mr Kwabena Poku Mensah. The counsel contended that the witness did not provide receipts for all payments made in respect of the accused's stay at the hotel. But the witness disagreed with him and said receipts were issued. The witness said she was waiting for the accused to make full payment of his indebtedness so as to issue him with a VAT receipt. Counsel: Are you aware he is an employee of Deutsche Welle (DW) and that DW was responsible for paying his bills. Witness: No. He did not tell us at the beginning that DW was responsible for his bills. He came in as an individual and that it was only when we demanded payment from him that he told us that he would take the money from DW and give it to us. The counsel contended that that the witness knew that the accused was a radio presenter and had worked with DW Radio, hence she threatened to tarnish his image. The counsel maintained that the witness asked the accused to pack his belongings out of the hotel and that the accused did not go out on his own volition but the witness disagreed with the counsel and said she gave the accused three weeks’ notice to move out. The prosecution said it has three more witnesses to call. The case was adjourned to August 18, 2008.
Des Bordes recently returned from Germany where he worked with Deutshe Welle (DW) Radio for five years. He has since been signed on to work with Angel FM in Kumasi after his work contract with DW Radio expired and was not renewed for him and subsequently asked to move to his homeland Ghana.
Meanwhile information gathered by Graphic Showbiz indicates that last Tuesday (August 5, 2008) des Bordes, in the middle of his programme rushed out of the studio of Angel FM with a mixer and crushed it on the ground to the surprise of staff and onlookers including drivers and passengers who were driving past the front of the radio station.
The cause of des Bordes’ action was not clear but it was learnt that technicians at the station had just done a new setup at the studio with the mixer.
Instead of calling for a technical assistance when he tried to use the mixer and it was not working for him, he got angry and removed the mixer from the studio and crushed it outside on the car park.
When contacted, officials of Angel FM refused to comment on the incident.

Three held over rape


The police in Kumasi have arrested three young men who allegedly gang raped an eighteen-year-old lady in a bush at Pankrono Estate at the weekend.
The suspects, Kwadwo Apau, 23, Kwaku Asiamah, 18 and Kwaku Dwumfuor, 20 were said to have kidnapped the young lady, sent her to Pankrono Estate and raped her in a bush.
They were said to have picked her at the Suame roundabout on Saturday August 9, 2008 in a taxi with registration number AS 2296 Q and sent her to Pankrono Estate for the ordeal after which they abandoned her and fled.
The driver of the taxi, Ofori Atta, 19 was arrested afterwards and led the police to arrest the three suspects.
The driver claimed he was innocent but the three other suspects admitted having sex with the lady and said the lady wilfully agreed to have sex with them at a fee.
Inspector Yusif Mohammed Tanko of the Ashanti Regional Police Public Relations Unit said the police were still investigating the incident.
He said the complainant told the police that she had gone to visit her boyfriend whom she named as Stephen and was on her way back to her house at Bantama at about 12am when she came across the suspects.
Inspector Tanko said the lady was picked by the driver of the taxi, which had the three suspects in it at the Suame roundabout bus stop with the intention of taking her to Bantama.
But he said the occupants kidnapped the lady and threatened to kill her with a locally manufactured pistol if she dared made noise drove her to Pankrono Estate and branched into a bush after seizing her mobile phone and GH¢40 she was holding at the time.
Inspector Tanko said the three suspects allegedly had sex with the lady in turns and later abandoned her in the bush.
The victim was said to have later came across a neighbourhood watch committee and after narrating the incident to them, the members of the committee became suspicious of a taxicab they had seen the driver pushing so they rushed back to the scene and arrested the driver and handed him over to the police at Old Tafo.
According to the police the driver told them that he had picked the three suspects in his car because he knew one of them.
He said whilst moving with them, his gas got finished so he decided to go and refill but when he returned the occupants were nowhere to be found and that it was during his attempt to restart the car that the neighbourhood watch committee members arrested and handed him over to the police.
Picture shows
From left to right Kwadwo Apau, 23. Kwaku Asiamah, 18 and Kwaku Dwumfuor, 20.