No Way For ‘Fix The Country’  Demo

The Ghana Police Service has warned that it will not permit demonstrators of the famous hashtag ‘FixTheCountry’ to hit the streets of Accra on Sunday, May 9, 2021.

#FixTheCountry is a social media craze mounting pressure on the government to, as it has been described, “solve issues affecting the country.” They cite unstable power and unemployment among others.

What started as a normal trend on Facebook and Twitter last Sunday metamorphosed into a plan to mobilise protestors onto the streets of the capital.

The announcement of the demonstration was hugely endorsed as several people expressed interest in attending.

The organisers later shared a notice they had sent to the Police, notifying the law enforcement agency about their intension to hit the streets.

However, speaking to The Chronicle in an exclusive  interview yesterday, the Greater Accra Regional Operations Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Kwasi Fori, says there is no way for the demonstration.

According to him, the imposition of the Executive Instrument restricting large gatherings is the legal basis on which the Police cannot provide protection for the protest.

He told this paper that on Tuesday, the organisers of the planned demonstration submitted a letter to the Police, to confer about the march.

However, ACP Kwasi Ofori added that DCOP Boakye Yiadom, the Regional Commander,  informed the organisers that the timing was not right for the demonstration, with the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic and the law.

ACP Kwasi Ofori further told The Chronicle that the Police “might go to court to stop them” from going ahead with the protest.

His reason was that the Police “cannot guarantee the public safety of the protestors, as well as individuals who live in and around the areas the protest may take place.”

The Chronicle has sighted the notice sent to the Police on the intention to exercise constitutional rights under Article 21(1)(d) and (f) of the 1992 Constitution.
Section 1 of the Public Order Act (Act 491) provides that any person who desires to hold any special event within the meaning of that Act in any public place shall notify the police of his intention not less than 5 days before the date of the special event.

In the notice to the Police, the protestors stated that the significance of the date – May 9th – had been “spontaneously and specifically” chosen for two reasons.

“First, it captures the restless spirit of over 126 Ghanaians who lost their lives in the May 9th Accra Sports Stadium Disaster due to institutionalised incompetence and disregard for Ghanaian lives. Secondly, the Protest commemorates the 26th Anniversary of the Kume Preko Demonstration of 11th May 1995.”

Thus, the event, according to the organisers “draws inspiration from the undying culture of protest and dissent that has forged our democracy and which Kume Preko has become a synonym for, in our collective memory.”

For the purpose of the event, the Police were told that, it was on the back of “a string of consistent broken promises by successive governments and in exercise of our democratic rights as citizens to express our frustration over perennial Governmental incompetence, refusal and/or inability to fix the country.”

Posts on social media on the Police’s resolve not to permit the demonstration show disappointment by a section of the public. Some could not fathom why politicians organise public gatherings, but the ordinary citizens are mostly barred.

Kwesi Picasso posted on Twitter that “Ghana Police said they won’t allow us to protest due to COVID-19 protocols, yet our political parties held durbars and rallies when the virus was at its peak. This country is a circus, #FixTheCountryNow.”

One Rockson Ashong also posted that: “They won’t allow, but religious bodies are holding mega-events with no precautionary measures in place. We will protest. #FixTheCountry.”

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