The Times says private developers, with the support of some chiefs, are fast encroaching on lands belonging to a large number of second-cycle institutions in the Ashanti Region, jeopardising their pressing expansion programmes. Under the heading: "School lands stolen...with chiefs' connivance, the Times says the developers are said to have been so emboldened by the assurances from the chiefs that orders by district assemblies for them to stop work on their projects are being treated with contempt. According to the Times, in the Kumasi metropolis, Osei Kyeretwie, Kumasi Girls' and Saint Louis Girls' Secondary Schools were identified as those suffering from encroachment. The others include the Ahmadiya Secondary School at Asokore in the Sekyere East District and the Agogo State College in Asante Akim North. The Times says the official has hinted that the Ashanti Regional Lands Commission has taken up the matter with the seriousness it deserves and will do everything possible to rectify the situation. GRI

"CEPS probes AEL for tax evasion", is the heading of a front page story in the Times which says Mr M. Opoku-Boamah, a special adviser to the Commissioner of Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), yesterday announced that the Service will fully investigate allegations of tax evasion against Mr Boniface K. Amandi, managing director of Aluminium Enterprises Limited (AEL). The Times says Mr Opoku-Boamah was however cautious in making any further statement, saying that the Commissioner, Dr Charles Asembri, would deal with the issue himself. The Times says an Accra weekly last week alleged that Mr Amandi owed company tax amounting to one billion cedils, another one billion cedis in sales tax and 200 million cedis in direct taxes. GRI

The Inspector-General of lolice (IGP), Mr Peter Nanfuri has ordered the immediate interdiction and prosecution of eight policemen of the Police Workshop in Kumasi for allegedly robbing a second-hand skhoke dealer, Mr Yaw Opoku, of 123,000 cedis. They are: Corporal A.K. Dzotefe, Constables Paul Adjei, Bismarck Ofosu, Eric Antwi Boasiako, Isaac Doger Garvery, John Kwasi Amponsah, Solomon Mahama and Martin Danchuru. The Times says a press statement issued by the Police Public Relations Office in Accra yesterday said at about 7.30 p.m. last July, Mr Opoku closed from work at the Railway Station and was on his way home at Ampabame but stopped to attend to nature's call. Mr Opoku entered a nearby bush for the purpose but was arrested by the suspects who accused him of smoking Indian hemp, a charge he vehemently denied. According to the press statements, Mr Opoku was forcibly put into a waiting police vehicle and driven away with of the suspects searching his pockets and seizing an amount of 123,000 cedis being sales he had made that day. GRI