“Order and Calm at Ablekuma By-election .. NPP Lauds Police for Vigilance” runs the Free Press banner headline in which the accompanying story says that Mr. Opoku Agyeman, one of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) chief patrons at Ablekuma, has lauded the Ghana Police for its “extra vigilance” during the just ended bye-election in the Ablekuma Central area. Mr. Agyeman is reported to have said he was “completely overwhelmed by the vigilance of the police on the voting day. If given the logistics and the right atmosphere to operate the police will be able to live up to the expectation of the general public,” he said, adding that “the police effectively held in check, the intimidating machomen from the NDC”. Speaking about the low turn out of voters, the NPP chief patron attributed it to a number of factors including the fact that most of the youth were still jobless after their hopes had been raised in the 1992 and 1996 ballots.
“Tony Aidoo’s Rudeness to Speaker” is another of the front page headlines in this edition of the Free Press. The paper declares that “Parliament was last Monday thrown into a state of shock when it was disclosed that the speaker Hon. Justice D.F. Annan once fell victim of the foul tongue of Dr. Tony Aidoo Deputy Minister of Defence. The incident is reported to have occurred at the Castle, Osu, during the days when speaker was a member of the defunct Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC). Dropping the bombshell during the debate on a motion to have the 21st report on ministerial nominations approved by Parliament, Hon. Kwamena Bartels is said to have pointed out that the vulgar expressions and un-printable words rained on the Speaker by Dr. Tony Aidoo could be found in the Francios report published a year after “the foul mouthed man” had left the university of Cape Coast. Dr. Aidoo was also accused of demanding that his fees as lecturer at the University of Cape Coast be paid in dollars demanding such things as an allowance and a return ticket to the United Kingdom. In an attempt to save Dr. Tony Aidoo from further embarrassment, the first deputy speaker and the chairman of the Appointments Committee Mr Kenneth Dzirasah, interrupted saying “it is late in the day for the honourable member to raise this issue.” After a couple more protests from the minority leader J.H. Mensah and others the nomination of Dr. Aidoo was finalised.
