Inspector General of the Ghana Police Service, Dr George Akuffo Dampare, has stated that organisers of the #OccupyJulorbiHouse protest have failed to submit evidence of police brutalities despite making wide allegations to that effect.
Addressing a dialogue meeting with various stakeholders as the year climaxes, Dr. Dampare said the organisers have not been able to put forth any evidence, even though claims of assault and brutality were made against the police on the first day of the three-day protest.
"Recently, there was some demonstration that they said they want to demonstrate for three days thereabout. We went through a process, based on what they wanted to do, we served them. They said they still want to demonstrate, then the police went there, and then they said no, what they doing is unlawful gathering, so they picked about 48 people up just to discourage people from even showing up the more so that at the end of the day, we wait for the court to make a determination as to how the demonstration should go.
“As soon as they were arrested, they went round making all sorts of allegations and all sorts of noise and said police have brutalised us; they have done this; they have done that. I took it upon myself the following day to meet their leaders, some of them and told them that if we had respected the process and allowed the court to tell us how we should go about it, we wouldn't get to where we have gotten to," he said.
He continued “But because you have succeeded with all the propaganda... and also the lies about the fact that the police have brutalised you, we will let you continue the demonstration, and we will let you finish with all the days that you want to do the demonstration, but we will challenge you to bring any evidence that speaks to the fact that you were brutalised. As I speak, after months of completing that demonstration to today, not a shred of evidence has been brought up to indicate that the police have brutalised them."
From September 21 to 23, 2023, some Ghanaians took to the streets to protest about economic hardship and governance.
The protest dubbed #OccupyJulorbiHouse on the first day was marred by the arrest of over 40 protesters, with allegations of assault being made against the police by the organisers.
However, the police have maintained that they are innocent of the allegations.
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Inspector General of Police, Dr George Akuffo Dampare