Host of Good Morning Ghana programme on Metro TV, on Thursday, September 21, 2023; described the illegal arrest of some protesters by the police.
He lamented how the police had opted to enforce an injunction it claimed to have served on Democracy Hub, organizers of the #OccuptyJulorbiHouse protests, which protest was quelled as quickly as it started from the 37 lorry station.
Abbey also pointed to the fact that protests in front of seats of government were a usual sight across the world citing the most recent case where some Ghanaians protested against president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo when he was due to deliver his speech at the United Nations General Assembly, a day prior.
“Yesterday we just showed the demonstration against Akufo-Addo in Manhattan, all the leaders in the Fourth Republic, anytime they travel, you see people come and demonstrate…. Why is it that 66 years after independence we make things like this?” he quizzed.
“They’ve expressed their right (UN HQ protesters) and this is not even their country, let’s even say that we don’t want them (Democracy Hub) to go the Jubilee House, can’t we cordon off the Jubilee House?
“All this dramatic thing, send a bus, early morning, put them in the bus, they take video ….they don’t know where they are beings sent to, others come they are arrested, what is all this drama about?” he lamented.
Background: The #OccupyJulorbiHouse protests:
On Day 1 (September 21) of the #OccupyJulorbiHouse protests by the Democracy Hub, a group of young activists; police illegally rounded up 49 protesters who were marching to demand action on the prevailing economic crisis and corruption.
The illegal arrests, especially how they were conducted by the police triggered harsh criticism of impeding the constitutional right to protest and deploying highhandedness on the part of police.
Police sent the detainees to the regional headquarters before splitting them up into about eight police stations dotted across the capital, even as colleague protesters and lawyers worked to secure bail for the illegally detained persons.
In this process, other journalists and protesters who massed up, especially at the Accra Regional Command encountered some amount of police violence including shoving, forced detention, seizure of phones and in the case of other physical assaults.
In their first of two statements on the day, police said the illegal arrests were justified because protesters were defying a court injunction served on them, which process they denied had been properly served.
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The second statement addressed the purported arrest of a BBC journalist and his cameraman, which reportage they dismissed as untrue.
By the close of day, almost all illegally detained protesters per GhanaWeb checks had been released from illegal detention on bail, it remains to be seen whether Day Two of the three-day protest targeting the seat of government, the Jubilee House, will come off today (September 22, 2023).
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