The Police on Thursday arrested about 50 demonstrators who joined hundreds in the hope of protesting at the frontage of the Jubilee House, the seat of government. The arrest took place in the early hours of Thursday September 21 at the 37 trotro station in Accra’s Military enclave, where the demonstrators had converged to embark on their planned protest. The demonstrators, adorned in black and red attire, intended to demand a range of reforms, including a reduction in the cost of living, an end to corruption, and improved governance. But this dream was short lived as men from the Ghana Police Service (GPS) bundled about 50 of them up into a bus and conveyed them to the Regional Police headquarters in Accra Central. Though the Police could not state why they had arrested the 50, the reason could be deduced from interactions that had ensued between the Police and organizers of the protest earlier. A few days back, after organizers of the protest made their intention to protest known, the Police said it had obtained a court injunction to stop the protest. The Police subsequently released a statement, cautioning people not to come out to protest on September 21. However, the organizers claimed they have not received any court notice, stopping them from embarking on the protest hence their presence at the converging point this morning. While being conveyed in the bus to the police station, Mr Oliver Barker-Vormawor, one of the organizers, shared a video on his social media pages, expressing the group’s disappointment in the Police. Mr Vormawor, who had previously been arrested in a similar protest, appealed to lawyers nationwide to provide legal aid to the detained protestors. He also called upon the public and the media for their solidarity. Meanwhile, Mr Sammy Gyamfi, Lawyer, and Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has condemned the action of the Police. Mr Gyamfi said the arrest was not only unlawful, but shameful and backward. In a social media post, Mr Gyamfi also said the Police’s action was an odious abuse of fundamental human rights and should not happen in any democratic country governed by the rule of law. ‘Even more reprehensible is the fact that some of the unlawfully arrested protestors have had their phones illegally seized and have been subjected to beatings and all manner of inhumane and degrading treatments by the GPS,’ he added. He condemned the act and demanded the immediate release of all the unlawfully arrested and detained protesters. The Ghana Police Service have declined to comment on the issue.
Source: Ghana News Agency