All Set For NDC July 6 Demo; COVID Is No Excuse – Agbana
The Deputy National Youth Organizer of the opposition National NDC, Edem Agbana, has said the government cannot use COVID-19 safety protocols to stop them from protesting.
“It is hypocritical to use COVID-19 to stop us when you have supervised the disregard of same,” he said.
The party has scheduled a protest for July 6, 2021, themed ‘March for Justice’.
According to him, the NDC youth’s decision to embark on the protest is to “demand justice for all persons killed and brutalized by state-sponsored thuggery and/or adventurism by Police and Military forces.”
“Those who have been maimed and killed by military officers in Ejura needs to serve justice and that is what we seek” he added.
The protest will also demand social justice for the unemployed youth in the country, claimed Agbana.
The various starting points of the protests are Madina, the Accra central business district, Osu, and Lapaz.
The supporters will subsequently, meet at the Jubilee House to present a petition to President Nana Akufo-Addo, Inspector-General of Police (IGP) James Oppong-Boanuh, and Speaker Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin.
Reacting to concerns about the adherence of COVID-19 protocols during the protest, Mr Agbana said the police cannot gag them with COVID-19 protocols.
“The police and military have no moral reason to prevent us using the protocols because they supervised the disregard of the protocols, we saw what happened at Sir Johns funeral, we also saw the president touring the country with school children running after him with no regard for COVID protocols” he argued.
Insisting that adherence to Covid-19 protocols will be ensured, the deputy youth organizer said “We will make sure that as far as possible all protesters adhere to the covid-19 protocol, tomorrow we will make a big statement with our protest” he told MX24 monitored by theghanareport.com.
The NDC was given assurance by the police over the weekend that the service will be at the demonstration to provide security. This was after the party had been told that COVID-19 restrictions would make it impossible for the mass gathering.
Some in the general public have drawn allusions between the NDC’s demonstration and the struggles of the organisers of the Fix The Country to convince the police to acquiesce to giving security for their own demonstration.
A recent Supreme Court ruling that set aside an earlier injunction on the #FixTheCountry demonstration is no reason to suppose that the planned civil disobedience will happen.
That is according to the Public Relations Officer of the Accra Regional Police, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Effia Tenge.
According to Tenge, the Supreme Court’s call did not also bar the police from serving the convenors of the protest with a preventive notice. She denied allegations that the police is continuing to interfere with the demonstration in contravention to the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“It is not now that the police is seeking a restraining order against the convenors. This case has been pending in court after the police filed an ex parte motion that restrained the conveners of #Fixthecountry from embarking on their demonstration. But because we went on an ex parte, for which the court granted an injunction, we have to go back to the court and this time around, on notice. We hope to extend our restriction,” Tenge said.