Protestors who showed up within the vicinity of the Jubilee House for the #OccupyJulorBiHouse demonstration have been arrested. A video on social media posted by Oliver Barker Vormawor showed the protestors in black and red seated in a bus. “We don’t know where they are taking us,” he said. He noted that they were disappointed in the actions of the police.
He stated that the country had weaponised the police to suppress demonstrators adding “they have no right to arrest demonstrators in the country. This is not the democracy we signed up for. This is not a democracy.” Mr Vormawor called on legal practitioners to show up at the police headquarters to provide legal assistance to the arrested demonstrators. He also called on the public and media for support.
The Accra-based civil society group organising the protest, Democracy Hub, had earlier notified the Ghana Police Service of their planned demonstration on Nkrumah Memorial Day to call on “the President and members of the Economic Management Team to #FixTheCountry in light of the level of economic mismanagement and theft that has engulfed our government from the highest levels.”
But on the eve of the event, the police secured an injunction from the court barring the protest from moving forth. In response the organisers revealed that they had not been served the court documents and as such had the right to stage the demonstration.
However, the police insisted it had served the lawyers of the organisers and urged members of the public to avoid participating in an “unlawful” demonstration. On Thursday, the demonstration came off but was short-lived. Following the arrest, the police have maintained a heavy presence at the Jubilee House. Scores of police personnel in crowd control vehicles and riot gear have lined up on the streets in front of the seat of government.
Source: Nasiba Yakubu
