Occupy Jubilee House Protest Continues On Day Two
The three-day protest of a group calling itself Democracy Hub carries on today, September 22, 2023, despite being marred by arrests on the first day.
On Friday, Oliver Barker Vormawor, convenor of the protest which is aimed at registering displeasure at what they described as “bad economic management and high levels of corruption” in the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led government, announced the protest carries on.
This is in spite of his arrest with 48 others on the first day of the protest described as an “unlawful assembly and violation of the Public Order Act” by the Ghana Police Service.
In a Facebook post, Vormawor said he was prepared to spend the night in jail if the police chose to arrest protesters again.
“I just set off from my house for day 2 of #OccupyJulorbiHouse We are meeting at 37 trotro Station. I don’t know what the police plan to do. But I have packed my jail pack. 1 boxer shorts, 1 towel, 1 dettol, 1 mosquito repellent,” his post read.
Social media footage on Friday showed traffic congestion at the 37 Military Hospital. According to broadcast journalist Martin Asiedu Dartey, the Police are preventing protestors from picketing at the Jubilee House causing the heavy vehicular traffic.
In an interview with the media this morning, Vormorwor narrated the ordeal he was subjected to by the police with other suspects arrested in connection with the protest.
“Beyond the arrest and the violent nature of the arrest, the one I‘m taking particular offence is we were taken into the Greater Accra Regional Command, put into a room, and 17 individuals {in plain clothes} who were wearing all kinds of earrings, who had dyed their hairs in different manners where thrown into the room…to beat us.”
According to him, these individuals were supposed to be intelligence officers.
Background
Democracy Hub announced their three-day protest on Tuesday at a press conference during which they accused the government of mismanaging the economy.
The organisers planned to spend days and nights picketing at the Jubilee House noting that the requisite logistics will be made available.
A day before the planned protest, the police released a statement announcing an interlocutory injunction had been filed to stop it.
The police said they had successfully served the organisers of the protest through their lawyer, however, a rebutting statement from the Pressure group said otherwise.
“We wish to put it on record that the Ghana Police Service has not served us with any application; and we are unaware of what exactly the police application is about…We are appalled by the desperate and likely partisan attempts by the Police to disrupt peaceful and democratic mobilization for our upcoming Occupy Julorbi House picket,” a part of the group’s statement released on Wednesday said.
“Our decision follows that of the legal position taken by the Government, and the Electoral Commission that the mere filing of an application does not prevent the exercise of constitutional rights,” the organisers justified as they indicated that the protest will carry on regardless.
On Thursday when the protesters began massing up at the converging point, 49 of them got arrested.
In a statement, the police said their arrest was a result of the “flagrant disregard of the court process served on the organisers of the Democracy Hub group, which seeks to prohibit them from embarking on a planned demonstration within the vicinity of the Jubilee House from Thursday, 21st to Saturday, 23rd September 2023.”
It added, “We would like to state that the Police do not take delight in preventing any group from demonstrating as the Service has a track record of providing security for demonstrations in the past. The exception, in this case, is the Police disagreement with the organisers on the venue, the Jubilee House, being a security zone.”
