Day 1 of demo ends in violent clash between protesters and police
Police announce arrests and moves to prosecute perpetrators
The governing New Patriotic Party's Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko has sought to belittle the turnout of the Arise Ghana demonstration of Tuesday, June 28, 2022.
He posted a video on Twitter with the accompanying text mocking the turnout, pointing at the resulting violence and praising the Police for their professional conduct in the face of the clash.
"An average of 250 protestors “arose” for the demo today. Scores of them decided to pelt the police with stones, bricks,etc. injuring them. Thankfully, the police would not be provoked and remained professional. I am not sure if this is what the organizers intended. Shameful!" the tweet read.
The 34-seconds video showed a group of young people hurling stones from atop of the overhead linking Kokomlele to the Adabraka area in Accra.
In another post that Gabby retweeted later, the police are captured facing off with a sea of irate protesters at the Nkrumah Circle where a decision by the protest leaders to change their protest route resulted in violent exchanges.
A GhanaWeb reporter observed that stones were thrown at the police by some irate supporters following which tear gas and rubber bullets were fired as police moved to thwart the change of route.
Water canon was also deployed as some protesters mounted road blocks by burning tyres in the middle of the road.
The Police said a dozen of its officers were injured in the clash whiles 29 people who played different roles in the attack on officers have been arrested and will be arraigned before the courts.
"The Police have arrested 29 demonstrators for their participation in violent attacks on the Police and some members of the public including school children during the Arise Ghana demonstration in Accra.
"Available footages of the event are being reviewed and all other persons identified for taking part in the attacks as well as inciting violence will be arrested and brought to face justice," the June 28, 2022 statement added.
The statement further disclosed that 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.
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