Traders resort to fake IDs to secure market stalls

Some traders within the central business district of Accra have been found to be in possession of fake Ghanaian voter identification cards. The nefarious practice by the traders was detected when they presented the fake Voter IDs to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, (AMA) in order to secure stalls at the Pedestrians Shopping Mall, hitherto Hawkers Market. On January 3, this year, a forty-two year old trader, Madam Helen Salami presented her ID to the AMA and was found to be fake. She however denied and insisting that it was a genuine one from the Electoral Commission, (EC). The said voter ID had polling station number as OCO41624B and ID number as 22736851(ED). The move by the traders could be described as a desperate one by those who refused to register with the AMA at the commencement of the mall to secure spaces. Moreover, they have been given an ultimatum to quit the streets by Monday January 15, 2007 due to a decongestion exercise to be carried out by the AMA. According to the Accra South Divisional Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Angwubutoge Awuni, the AMA called the attention of the police when it detected fake ID cards among those presented by traders to secure stalls at the pedestrians’ mall. But the traders are said to have rejected this claim by the AMA, while alleging that it is just an orchestrated attempt by the assembly to deny them spaces at the mall. Chief Supt. Awuni explained that Helen upon interrogation stated she was pregnant during the last voter registration exercise. Consequently, she gave an amount of one hundred thousand cedis and her passport size picture to a certain boy to get her a voter ID card. “In Ghana, nobody pays money for a voter ID. The voter ID bears only her first name Helen. It has been presented to the EC for verification and further action.” Earlier, five traders were also arrested in line with the same issue. They are namely, Omari Dartey, Afia Attah -35, Joseph Ashimatey – 31, Kwasi Ampofo – 36 and Eric Darko – 29. While the four claimed their IDs were genuine cards which they used to vote in the last general elections, Eric was found to possess two ID cards with different names. Chief Supt. Awuni told Public Agenda that Eric who is often referred to as Kwabena Darko by his colleagues claimed he often use the name Eric Darko in school. Hence, when he presented the ID card bearing the name Eric Darko to the AMA his colleagues raised an alarm. The Divisional Commander said Eric admitted he contacted somebody around the Accra post office who prepared for him another ID with the name Kwabena Darko. “He has since been prepared for court and the rest forwarded to the EC for verification.” The market which the Accra Mayor, Mr. Stanley Nii Adjiri Blankson says its the first of its kind in West Africa is tailored to address the peculiar needs of petty traders who are presently holding the whole city ransom. The about three thousand stall occupants will be expected to pay ¢2 million for the allocation of a stall and ¢2 hundred thousand as registration fee. They will then be expected to sign an undertaking to abide by the rules governing the use of the mall. At the same market one thousand more traders will be accommodated in an open area specially created within the mall. Such traders will be expected to pay ¢1 million each for allocation of a place and ¢100 thousand as registration fee.

Domestic Violence Bill fails domestic workers

The Deputy Minister for Youth, Manpower and Employment, Madam Frema Osei Opare says it is unfortunate that the Domestic Violence Bill has been reduced to just an issue of “marital rape”. Expressing worry over the issue she said marital rape is only a minute bit of the entire bill and said there are so many important issues including the rights of domestic workers. Domestic workers / assistants could include house girls and boys, maidservants, watchmen and sometimes drivers. “Those of us advocates we erred and those who are receiving it also erred. We need to educate the public about the fact that the DV bill is not only about marital rape but how we handle domestic workers as well.” Madam Opare was speaking at the launch of “Messages from and on Domestic Workers”, a LAWA – Ghana advocacy on the rights of domestic workers in Accra. She was concerned about the fact that majority of the problems faced by domestic workers are caused by women. The deputy minister noted that due to lack of appreciation these workers are put under stress and its consequences. She called for intensive public education on the rights of domestic workers and urged queen mothers and other opinion leaders to engage the womenfolk in the campaign. “Proper agreements must be arrived at between both families before a domestic worker is engaged.” LAWA-Ghana Alumnae Incorporated, is a non-governmental organization comprising a group of women lawyers who continue to undertake certain legislative advocacy projects to promote women’s economic and social rights in Ghana. Its past work included undertaking a fact finding mission in the Accra and Tema metropolitan areas in 2003 to ascertain the rights of domestic workers. With support from the Rights And Voices Initiative, (RAVI), LAWA-Ghana continued its advocacy activities on the proposed draft regulation in four regions ; namely Volta, Western, Ashanti and Central regions. It has drafted regulations on domestic workers generally, which it hopes will be adopted under the Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651). They often serve several categories of people in the home. It is perceived that people who often hire their services are relations due to the country’s strong cultural attitudes and practices. And such relations often promise the domestic assistants greener pastures but end up giving them nothing. A research by LAWA in Accra and Tema in 2003 revealed that domestic workers are usually denied basic human rights.They do not engage in any form of contract and even when they do, it is usually done through agencies. According to Gloria Ofori Boadu, a member of LAWA-Ghana, the project focused on the rights of domestic assistants and using the rights-based approach, undertook certain activities in each of the regions. These, she said include conducting research, rapid appraisal to ascertain regional trends, stakeholders forum and capacity building workshop for domestic workers on their rights and responsibilities.“These domestic workers are mostly females as young as eight years who enjoy no labour rights, social security but suffer from lots of abuses, with sexual harassment running through.” She recommended the need for legal reforms to ensure that domestic workers are covered, public education and sensitization and resource allocation to district departments for social welfare and labour offices to enforce these laws. Two posters with clear messages, “Abusing your house help is criminal” and “First to Rise, Last to Sleep” were also launched.

Areas with heaviest canoes and catches would have landing sites, which already entails the construction of a cold storage facility.

The police are accusing some personnel of banks that are into money transfer transactions of assisting 419 tricksters to defraud Ghanaians and foreigners of huge sums of money through the Internet. Police say some staff of money transfer agencies are also deeply involved in the trade. A worried source at the Police Headquarters told Public Agenda that this development is gradually earning Ghana the unattractive title as a high Internet crime country. The source explained that these unscrupulous personnel connive with these “criminals” to defraud their victims, mainly foreign nationals of huge sums of money and in the end get their share. According to the police source, as many as 19 complaints of cases of Internet fraud are recorded weekly. These include romance fraud, which involves dating through the Internet, 419 frauds that normally involve treasures, gold fraud and money washing fraud which involves the use chemicals to wash coated money. Consequently, foreigners are gradually loosing interest in the security intelligence of the country. The source said whenever a complaint is made and a controlled delivery is put in place to hunt down such criminals, these unpatriotic personnel give the fraudsters hints and as a result they do not turn up to receive their ill-gotten money to enable the police arrest them. Sometimes the money transfer personnel withdraw the money on behalf of the fraudsters and hand it to them later. Foreign nationals, especially Nigerians dominate the Internet fraud, with the Ghanaian youth between the ages of 17 to 30 struggling to take over. These youth mainly residing in Nima, Mamobi and Mallam Atta suburbs in Accra log on to dating sites on the internet to create their on profiles with female names, while they attach photographs from websites of models to their supposed dates. Eventually, these fraudsters feign love and express interest to join their unsuspecting victims in their countries. The source said they begin to demand huge sums of money from their “lovers” to enable them process necessary documents to join them. These same fraudsters then pose as travel agents and send messages to the victims about the cost of travel arrangements. Afterwards, they ask for money to settle their families, either by buying or renting a property for them before they can leave to join their new found lovers. The fact is that after every payment, these fraudsters come out with another story.Finally, they call their victims on the supposed date of departure to inform them that they have been arrested by the security agencies at the airport for possessing gold. Therefore, the victims are required to send a huge amount of money before they could be released to board their flights. The police source said the victims upon suspicion at this stage contact the police who in turn put in place measures to hunt the fraudsters down, only for the bad nuts within the money transfer agencies to hint the fraudsters not to show up for such monies. The police are therefore calling on management of such banks and money transfer agencies to be on watch out for such personnel who are helping criminals to bring the name of the country into disrepute. The general public is being advised to be wary of such cheats in the society who have intensified their activities particularly in the heat of the Christmas festivities. The police have also cautioned operators of hotels to watch out for personnel in their facilities who are doubling as 419 agents and are helping fraudsters to defraud innocent foreigners.