Hashtags are an integral part of social media campaigns as it helps coalesce the thoughts and feelings of people pushing for a particular cause online.
#OccupyJulorbiHouse, for good reasons, has been trending for three straight days topping trends as protesters under the guidance of Democracy Hub marched against economic malaise and corruption.
By close of the three-day protest, the hashtag had hit over a million posts at one point even as activists drew attention to corrupted variants allegedly planted by pro-government accounts.
Aside #OccupyJulorbiHouse, #FixTheCountry was also in the trends as was #Sarkodie as well as some of the corrupted variants like #OccupyJubilorHouse and #OccupJulorbiHouse.
One tech guru, on September 23 noted that the trends were looking pro-government and warned that there was a possibility that ‘mercenary’ activists had been unleashed.
He provided evidence to the effect that following his tweet, he was being exited from social media pages purposefully created to counter the original hashtag on Twitter (Now X) and Instagram.
On the last day of the three-day #OccupyJulorbiHouse protests, protesters attempted to force their way through a police barricade deep into the night and march to the presidency.
This is despite the illegal arrests and police highhandedness that marred Day 1 when police arrested 49 protesters, who were detained for hours on allegations of unlawful assembly.
All of them were later released on bail.
Day 2 and 3 passed without any major incident as police barricaded the main road leading to the presidency, Jubilee House, even before the protesters began their march towards the place.
Whiles Day 2 saw the blocking of one part of the 37-Accra road, the final day saw the blocking of both sides which meant vehicular traffic was greatly constrained for the better part of the day.
SARA
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Police barricade on Day 3 as protesters remained deep into the night