“Thank You Ghana”, Minority After Protest
The Minority in Parliament has showed appreciation to the Ghanaian populace for massing up for the much-anticipated Occupy BoG Protest.
Thousands joined the “peaceful” protest on Tuesday, October 3, 2023 to demand the resignation of top officials of the Central Bank including the Governor, Ernest Addison.
The protest spearheaded by the Minority in Parliament was joined by Civil Society Organizations (CSO), Progressive Forces, and others.
In a Facebook post, the General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi thanked the protesters.
“Thank you Ghana,” he captioned pictures of scenes from the event.
The protest though peaceful, was short of expectations as the Governor of the Bank, Dr Ernest Addison failed to show up for the petition of the protesters.
He sent out a man who identified himself as Kwame Asare Boateng, the Director of Security at the BoG to do it on his behalf.
According to him, Mr Addison was in a meeting with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and could not avail himself for it- an excuse that infuriated the leadership to return home with the petition.
The Minority Leader in Parliament, Cassiel Ato Forson, called it disrespect to the people of Ghana as he insisted on handing the petition out to him in person.
“We will not present our petition. We will go and come back again. We will come back again. We will come back and demand to see him in person. The crowd you’ve seen is just the beginning…It he thinks that the IMF is more important than the people of Ghana, {we will make him know} he is here because of the people of Ghana. We will come after him. Until we see him, we not stop.”
The protest was aimed at compelling the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison and his two deputies to step down after they refused to voluntarily bow out in August 2023 following the issuance of an ultimatum.
The group protested against the Central Bank’s alleged illegal printing of about GH¢ 80 billion between 2021 and 2022 which they say contributed to an inflation rate of 54.1% in December 2022.
Additionally, they registered their disapproval at the reported GHC 60.8 billion loss incurred by the Bank in 2022 which has sent it into an over GH¢50billion negative equity position.
