Mr Charles Xavier-Luc Duval, Deputy Prime Minister of Mauritius, had his visit to the Northern Region truncated, when a dispatch rider leading the entourage from the Savelugu Municipality to the Tamale Metropolis was involved in a gory accident.
Xavier-Luc Duval, who is also the Minister of Finance and Economic Development in Mauritius, arrived in Ghana on Wednesday at the head of a 30-member business delegation for a three day visit to deepen bilateral relations and explore investment opportunities, particularly in the sugar industry.
He was expected to leave for Mauritius on Friday but was asked to embark on a visit to the Northern Region by a government appointee, according to sources. It is however unclear which Minister or government official impressed on the Mauritian Prime Minister to make the Tamale trip, since sources say it was originally not part of the itinerary planned for the visiting Number Two of Mauritius.
The Deputy Prime Minister was reportedly taken to places including the Marina�s shopping mall as well as the river side at Akosombo by a state official though it was not part of his itinerary.
Mr Duval who had earlier addressed a durbar of chiefs and people of Savelugu in the Savelugu-Nanton Municipality, said the Mauritian Government had made funding available to commence work on the 250-million-dollar sugarcane manufacturing factory in the area.
He assured the people that many jobs would be created to give great prosperity to the people to enhance their living standards.
The Yoo-Naa, Naa Abubakari Mahama, chief of Savelugu, enskinned the Prime Minister under a name interpreted to mean Sugarcane Development Chief.
Earlier in Accra, Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Trade and Industry, told the visiting Vice Prime Minister that government was determined to reduce the amount of sugar imports drastically in the next few years.
He said Ghana was determined to reposition itself as the major exporter of sugar in the sub-region and would therefore explore every opportunity in the development of sugar cane plantations to achieve its purpose.
Government, he said, would plan its infrastructure and make land available for the sugar cane plantation initiative to quickly take off.
Dispatch Rider
Corporal Moses Osei Tutu, a dispatch rider of the Tamale Motor, Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service had a head-on-collision with a tipper truck between the Bawa Barracks and the Kamina barracks on the Savelugu-Tamale Highway, and later died at the Tamale Teaching Hospital.
Several mourners, mostly police personnel, trooped to the hospital where his body had been deposited at the morgue to pay him their last respects.
The Police motor dispatch that he was riding, caught fire together with the tipper truck immediately after the accident, while the driver whose identity was not disclosed, was receiving treatment at the Tamale Teaching Hospital under police guard.
Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Ebenezer Tetteh, Public Relations Officer of the Northern Regional Police Command, who confirmed the incident to the Ghana News Agency said, the family had already been briefed about the tragic incident.
He explained that the rider who was in the company of another dispatch rider, were leading the entourage from Savelugu when the tipper truck ignored police signals and vied off his lane, hitting Corporal Osei Tutu to the ground.
He said the deceased sustained various degrees of injuries and multiple fractures leading to his death.
Source: Peacefmonline.com with additional files from GNA
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