Day 1 of demo ends in violent clash between protesters and police
Police announce arrests and moves to prosecute perpetrators
Builsa South Member of Parliament, Clement Abas Apaak, has questioned whether the Occupy Ghana pressure group that protested against economic and governance failure starting 2015 wanted to create instability by their actions.
The MP was responding to his colleague and Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah who described recent events in the country as signs of attempts to create instability.
He listed as examples, the violent incidents of June 28, 2022 during Day 1 of the Arise Ghana protests and the case of #FixTheCountry campaigners demanding to hold a protest with arms, weeks ago.
Apaak in a social media post asked if Occupy Ghana who held an Occupy Flagstaff House protest by their actions were also seeking to destabilize the government of John Dramani Mahama.
"When you and your OccupyGhana were protesting was it your agenda to create instability in the country?" he quizzed.
Apaak also repeated claims by the Arise Ghana leaders that police agent provocateurs were behind the stone throwing that led to a clash between police and protesters.
"Tell us why the guy who threw the 1st stone was let go by the police when he was apprehended and handed over to them by Prince Derrick Adjei etc?"
What Oppong-Nkrumah said
Oppong-Nkrumah in an interview on the June 28 edition of Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana programme said, "There is an obvious attempt to create instability in our country, we don’t need to mince words about it. And there is a trajectory, first there was a group that wanted to demonstrate with weapons.
“Then there was this group that said they wanted to demonstrate from the evening throughout the night till the next morning and the Police raise obvious questions…” he stressed.
He continued: “This is even daytime, in broad daylight at Obra Spot here in Accra and you have people attacking police people in this manner, can you imagine what could have happened at night if indeed some of these things were allowed to continue.”
He further accused the demonstrators of breaching the order given by the court relative to the approved route.
He said the Police had confirmed at a National Security briefing that tear gas was first fired at their personnel who had formed a barricade to force the protesters to use the agreed upon route.
Brief of what we know so far:
Police have announced the arrest of 29 people in connection with violent incidents that marred the June 28, 2022 Arise Ghana demonstration at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle.
15 Police officers are receiving medical care as are some protesters who got caught up in the chaos.
Police say they leaders of the protest will be arrested and arraigned for the attacks and damage to property according to provisions under relevant laws.
Arise Ghana, an amalgamation of groups and individuals organized the two-day protest to highlight the rising cost of living and issues of misgovernance.
Despite a court order relative to time and route of the protest, the leaders insisted on following a route other than the one ordered by the court, an insistence by the Police that they obey the agreed upon route resulted in the skirmishes.
Day Two of the protest, a march from El-Wak Sports Stadium to Parliament came off without any incident.
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