Ghana Police is becoming lawless under Akufo-Addo – LINSOD

A group calling itself Lawyers in Search of Democracy (LINSOD) has said the Ghana Police Service is becoming lawless under President Akufo-Addo’s government.

This comes on the back of the police showing up on a bus and arresting the group calling themselves Democracy Hub who was involved in the #OccupyJulorbiHouse protest on Thursday, September 21, 2023.

The police had filed an application at the court and successfully served the organisers of a group identifying itself as Democracy Hub in connection with a planned demonstration within the vicinity of the Jubilee House from Thursday, September 21st, to Saturday, September 23rd, 2023.

But the police, upon seeing the demonstrators gathering close to 37 transport stations in Accra on Thursday morning, arrested about 50 members of the group.

However, in a statement, LINSOD indicated that the interpretation by the police that the mere service of an application for an injunction on the demonstrators serves as a bar for the demonstrators to proceed with their intended demonstration is not an established principle.

It stated that such a move by just serving an injunction has been obeyed by institutions such as the Electoral Commission of Ghana.

“EC is carrying out a limited registration of voters currently, notwithstanding that the Commission has been served with applications for an injunction on the exercise and another one for contempt for ignoring the injunction application.

“It is important to state that even if the service of the application for injunction serves as a bar on the intended demonstration, or if the injunction had even been granted and yet the demonstrators ignored all of that to proceed on the demonstration, the appropriate action against them should be contempt proceedings against them in court, but not arrest and detention by the police.

“The conduct of the police in this matter and many similar ones give resemblance to a police state in Ghana. It is lawless conduct to appease President Nana Akufo-Addo, whose administration, though democratic on paper, has largely been autocratic in practice. The conduct of the police is an affront to our democracy of many years, and it is a shame. Ironically, while our President is at the United Nations demanding for more democracy within the UN, the police in Ghana is abusing the rights of citizens and eroding our democratic credentials,” President of LINSOD Eric Delanyo Alifo, Esq. stated.