Police seek court order to stop demo by 3 groups in December

The Ghana Police Service has filed an application at the High Court seeking an order to stop some three groups from staging demonstrations in December.

The groups, including Democracy Hub, Patriotic Hub, and the Patriotic Forum for Accountable Governance, notified the police of their intended protests at the Jubilee House throughout December 2023.

While two of the groups said the planned protest was to demand the resignation or impeachment of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the Patriotic Forum for Accountable Governance said its protest is to express its heartfelt appreciation to the president for sustaining the country through the COVID-19 pandemic and setting the nation on the path of economic recovery.

In a statement issued on Friday, the Ghana Police Service said it “undertook a security threat assessment of the proposed common destination, overlapping timelines and conflicting objectives for the three planned demonstrations.”

“The Police Command, after the security assessment, has reasonable grounds to believe that the three special events, if held around or at the forefront of the Jubilee House, and at the given time-lines, especially around the Christmas and New Year Festivities, may endanger public safety, public defense, public order, the running and delivery of essential services and violate the rights and freedoms of other persons among others.”

The GPS said it engaged the organizers on the challenges and its inability to provide them the needed security, so they should postpone the date of their protest to any date after January 5, 2023.

But according to the GPS, the organisers refused so “on 15th November 2023, the Police Command filed an application at the High Court seeking an order to prohibit the holding of the special events and successfully served the various organizers with the Court process. The application is slated for hearing on Tuesday, 21st November 2023.”

It assured the public that it was committed to nurturing the country’s growing democratic freedoms by providing the necessary security for individuals and groups as they exercised their constitutional right to protest safely and peacefully in accordance with the laws governing protests.

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