Day 1 of demo ends in violent clash between protesters and police
Police announce arrests and moves to prosecute perpetrators
A leader of the Arise Ghana protest movement, Joshua Akamba, has called the bluff of the police over a notice that they will arrest and prosecute leaders of the Arise Ghana demo.
Police in a statement dated June 28, announced the arrest of 29 people believed to have been complicit in the violent clashes that marred the first day of the protest.
In an interview at the El-Wak Sport Stadium on June 29, before the group kick started the second-day of the protest, Akamba told journalists that they were also ready to sue the Police for their role in instigating the fracas.
He said the organizers will be gathering evidence by way of videos in their possession and footage from the media: “we will make (a) case against the Police. Whiles they are making case against us, we will also make case, we will press charges against them.
“They can do their worse. Tell them that we are not afraid of their intimidation. Nkrumah came out of jail and became president we will rescue this country,” he stressed.
Leaders of the group have accused the Police of planting agent provocateurs who started throwing the stones that led to the clashes on Tuesday.
But according to the Police statement declaring the leaders 'wanted': "...the organizers will be arrested and put before court for the attacks and damage to public property, in line with the provisions of Section 3 of the Public Order Act, (Act 491)."
Arise Ghana, an amalgamation of groups and individuals organized the two-day protest to highlight the rising cost of living and issues of bad governance.
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.
Day two of the protest ended without any incident as protesters marched from El-Wak to Parliament where they delivered a petition to the legislature.
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