The parliamentary Minority caucus has submitted an affidavit in response to the Greater Accra Regional Police Command’s application for an injunction against their planned protest targeting the Bank of Ghana Governor and his deputies. Their legal representatives filed this affidavit at the Accra High Court registry on Friday, September 1.
Earlier in the week, the Greater Accra Regional Police Command had sought an injunction against the Minority’s proposed protest route. The members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Parliament intend to march on Tuesday, September 5, starting from Makola, passing through Rawlings Park and Opera Square, and concluding at the Bank of Ghana headquarters. Their objective is to demand the resignation of the Bank of Ghana Governor and his deputies due to the central bank’s reported losses of over GH¢60.8 billion in 2022.
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However, the police argued that the chosen route often experiences heavy human and vehicular traffic, potentially endangering public order, safety, and essential services. They proposed an alternative route, beginning at Parliament House and ending at Independence Square via the Osu Cemetery Traffic Light, which the Minority rejected.
The injunction hearing is scheduled for September 4 and aims to prevent the Minority from using their preferred protest route.
“We received a letter on Wednesday from the Ghana Police Service accompanied by a bailiff from the Accra High Court who served a notice or motion for an order to prohibit our Bank of Ghana protest, and we must say that we are very disappointed with this development which is an attempt to scatter the protest which is intended to hold the Governor and his deputies accountable for their mismanagement of the bank which resulted in an unprecedented and colossal loss of GH¢60.8 billion, an amount which has had serious consequences on the economy and pushed close to one million Ghanaians into poverty”.
“And let us assure the people of Ghana that, as representatives, we will keep our sacred duty and we will uphold the public interest in line with our constitutionally guaranteed right to publicly protest, and we want to assure the people of Ghana that we have resolved to embark on this protest and nothing will stop us” he noted.
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Bawku Central MP Mahama Ayariga, speaking in an interview in Accra, asserted that their demonstration does not pose a security threat to the public. He also accused the police of acting in bad faith, stating that they had been engaged throughout the planning process for the protest. Ayariga emphasized that the protest was intended to exercise their constitutionally guaranteed right to public protest and that nothing would deter them from doing so.
“A very good law can be used injuriously by very bad people. The Public Order Act as the name suggest is to ensure public order, but please you need to establish that there is a real threat and this is a protest march that we have not heard one single Ghanaian say that they are going to challenge the protesters with a counter demonstration, so there is really no threat” he emphasized.
