Police Jaw-Jaw With Organisers of Occupy Jubilee House Demo

The Ghana Police Service has reasoned with the leadership of Democracy Hub- organisers of the Occupy Jubilee House Protest currently being hampered.

According to the police, the meeting was called by the Service at the instance of the Inspector General of Police, Dr George Akufo Dampare.

The meeting, it said, was to jaw-jaw with the organisers of the protest over critical concerns from both sides concerning the demonstration.

“At the meeting, the Police reechoed that the Service is not against any person or a group of persons who want to demonstrate as it has a track record of providing security for demonstrations in the past. However, in this instant case, the Police concern was the location of the intended demonstration, the Jubilee House, which is a designated security zone.”

At the end of the meeting, according to the police, the leadership of the group agreed to leave the streets until an ultimate decision on the venue for their picketing is made.

“The leaders of the group assured the Police during the meeting that they would hold a discussion with their members to come to a possible compromise as to the venue of the demonstration and revert to the Police.

“The leaders also assured the Police that they would talk to their members to leave the streets while awaiting either a compromise decision between the Police and the demonstrators on an alternative venue or the determination of the matter by the court.”

The second day of the Occupy the Jubilee House protest has been hampered by personnel of the Ghana Police Service as protesters remain at the 37 Military Hospital. The police have mounted barricades to prevent protesters from making their way up to the Jubilee House where they intend to picket until Saturday, September 23, 2023.

The protest began on Thursday, September 21- intentionally set to coincide with the birthday of Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah. The first day was however marred by arrests by the police as they described the protest as an “unlawful assembly and violation of the Public Order Act”.

The group is protesting against the economic mismanagement by the incumbent government; Corruption; Ineffective healthcare system; human rights abuse under the current government; and Abuse of power and authority.