“Five on trial for treason…Coup plot began in London”, is the headline of the lead story in the Times. The story, with an accompanying picture of five alleged coup plotters, says the trial began at an Accra High Court yesterday of five people who were arrested in Accra in September, 1994, for treason. The Times named them as Alex Offei, also known as Kwame Alex, 55, a technician from Bokuruwa, Kwahu, Kwame Ofori Appiah, 49, a cleaner and native of Offinso-Ashanti, and Sylvester Addae-Dwemoh, 48, a teacher from Tepa- Ashanti. The rest are, John kwadwo Owusu-Boakye, 33, a student-nurse ffrom Offinso-Ashanti and Emmanuel Osei Kofi, 48, a driver from Beposo-Nsuta. They pleaded not guilty and were committed to prison custody ubtil October 22, when proceedings will continue. The trial is before a panel of High Court Judges under the chairmanship of Mr Justice R.K. Apaloo. Other members are Mr Justice P.K. Owusu Sekyere and Ms Justice Ivy N. Ashong. GRI
In another front page story the Times reports that the Ashanti Regional Lands Commission has said that more than 100 building plots of land belonging to Osei Kyeretwie Secondary School (OKESS) in Kumasi, have been illegally demarcated and sold to private developers. The paper says Nana Kwaku Dua the second, Busumuruhene, identified by the Commission as brain the brain behind the massive encroachment, has conceded allocating the land to developers. He admitted the wrong-doing in a petition dated May 2 and requested for clemency, offering to shoulder whatever punishment would be given to the encroachers. GRI
The Immigration authorities on Tuesday night detained a Liberian deportee and two Swiss police escorts at the Kotoka International Airport after refusing them entry, reports the Times on its front page. The Times says, Mr Oppong Ansu-Gyeabour, Assistant Director of Immigration in charge of the airport, said the deportee, Mr Jacob Sackor, is not a Ghanaian. The Swiss escorts, Mr Chrisian Rufer and Mr Beat Rufer, were denied entry because there was no document indicating that the deportee is a Ghanaian. According to the Times, Mr Ansu-Gyeabour said the detention of the escorts was aimed at stopping some European countries from “dumping non-Ghanaian nationals residing illegally in their countries on Ghana”. He said Mr Sackor’s travelling document was issued by the Swiss authorities and not Ghana’s mission in Switzerland. The Assistant Director said “since there is no proof that Sackor is a Ghanaian and he himself claims to be a Liberian, he cannot be allowed entry into Ghana”. Sackor, 32, who has been living in Switzerland as an asylum seeker for the past four years, said he is legally married to a Swiss woman by who he has one child. GRI
