Police File Suit To Change Duration Of Arise Ghana Demo
The Ghana Police Service has clearly indicated that it has filed a lawsuit in court to have the length of the Arise Ghana Coalition’s planned demonstration determined.
The police claim that the failure to reach an agreement with the protest organizers about the start and end times of the demonstration forced them to initiate the lawsuit.
The police stated in a statement on June 26, 2022, that they wanted the protest to start early so that it can stop before dusk, a request that the organizers did not agree with.
“Following a series of meetings, Arise Ghana informed the Police in a letter dated June 8, 2022, that instead of two continuous days, the demonstration will start on the first day at 3 pm and end at 10 pm and resume the next day.
“The Police … responded and urged that in order to adequately ensure the safety of demonstrators and other members of the public, the demonstration should not travel into the night… in the interest of public order and safety, we entreated the organisers to reconsider their time frame and start the demonstration early in the day and end before night falls
“… the Police received a verbal response from the organisers the effect that they are unable to change the time of the demonstration. Due to the lack of agreement between the Police and the organisers on the time for the demonstration and location for their planned picketing, the Police have had no option but to submit the process to the court for a determination,” portions of the statement issued by the police read.
It added that the court will be hearing its suit against the duration of the demo on Monday, June 27, 2022.
Main issues underpinning the protest
According to a recent statement by Arise Ghana, its historic two-day demonstration, which is scheduled for Tuesday, June 28, is primarily to protest persistent and astronomical hikes in fuel prices by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government that has imposed excruciating economic hardships on Ghanaians.
It said it was also to protest the imposition of the obnoxious E-Levy on the already-burdened Ghanaian people by the insensitive Akufo-Addo/Bawumia Government and demand a full-scale and bi-partisan parliamentary probe into COVID-19 expenditures.
Others are to protest the grabbing of State lands by officials of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government, particularly the de-classification of huge portions of the Achimota Forest Reserve.
The rest are to protest the increased rate of police brutalities and state-sponsored killing of innocent Ghanaians, as well as the growing culture of human rights abuses under the watch of President Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo and Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and demand the total cancellation of the fraudulent “Agyapa” deal.
Source: Opemsuo.com/ Emmanuel Owusu Anti
