Full text: LINSOD condemns police over arrest of #OccupyJulorbihouse protestors

STATEMENT OF LAWYERS IN SEARCH OF DEMOCRACY (LINSOD) ON THE ARREST OF DEMONSTRATORS ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21^ST. 232

GHANA POLICE IS BECOMING LAWLESS UNDER PRESIDENT NANA AKUFO ADDO

We have learned with dismay, the arrest and detention, by the police, of the organizers and some participants of a peaceful demonstration, who were to converge in front of the Seat of Government, the Jubilee House in Accra earlier this morning of Thursday, September 21^st, 2023. The facts of the lawless arrest and detention as we have them are as follows:

The organizers of the demonstration, who are Ghanaian citizens and belong to the groups, “Democracy Hub” and “Fix the Country,” had duly informed the police of their planned demonstration and routes in accordance with the Public Order Act, 1994 (Act 491) of Ghana. Our further information is that there was a healthy interaction between the organizers of the demonstration and the police, which suggested that the demonstration was going to be smooth and successful. However, the police, as is usual and very common with them under President Nana Akufo Addo’s regime, ran to court with an application for injunction against the demonstration at the eleventh hour.

There are conflicting accounts as to whether or not the application for injunction, as filed, had been served on the organizers of the demonstration. It is clear however, that the application has not been heard and granted by any court. As such, there is no court order restraining the intended demonstration. In light of the absence of any court order against the demonstration, the organizers and some of their followers had earlier this morning began to amass at their intended starting point, in readiness to embark on their peaceful demonstration. Unfortunately, we have learned that the police rushed in with buses to arrest the organizers, alleging that they were about to embark on an illegal demonstration. We have learned that those arrested have been distributed to various police stations in the capital and our lawyers are combing the city to locate them and provide legal services for them to secure their release.

We unreservedly condemn the conduct of the police, as same is unlawful and lawless. It is so because there is no such thing as “illegal demonstration” under the Public Order Act, particularly, in the absence of a court order that bars the demonstration. There is also no authority for the police under the Public Order Act to arrest and detain citizens who are on peaceful demonstration and have not damaged any public property; caused harm to persons or other property; or obstructed pedestrian or vehicular traffic.

The interpretation by the police that the mere service of an application for injunction on the demonstrators serves as a bar on the demonstrators to proceed with their intended demonstration is not an established principle, and especially, in recent times, is not obeyed by institutions such as the Electoral Commission of Ghana, which is carrying out a limited registration of voters currently notwithstanding that the Commission has been served with applications for injunction on the exercise, and another one for contempt for ignoring the injunction application.

It is important to state that even if the service of the application for injunction serves as a bar on the intended demonstration, or if the injunction had even been granted and yet the demonstrators ignored all of that to proceed on the demonstration, the appropriate action against them should be contempt proceedings against them in court, but not arrest and detention by the police. The conduct of the police in this matter and many similar ones give resemblance of a police state in Ghana. It is lawless conduct to appease President Nana Akufo Addo, whose administration, though is democratic on paper, has largely been autocratic in practice. The conduct of the police is an affront to our democracy of many years, and it is a shame. Ironically, while our President is at the United Nations demanding for more democracy within the UN, the police in Ghana is abusing the rights of citizens and eroding our democratic credentials.

We wish to hereby call on the police to release all those, they have arrested forthwith. They have not committed any offence to warrant their arrest and detention. It is cruel to spread them in various police cells only because they had wanted to exercise their constitutional right to demonstrate. The Ghana Police Service has responsibility to act in accordance with the law, but not for the interest of a particular person in power. Many lawyers are out there to assist those who have been arrested and it is our hope that the police shall begin to redeem its image by facilitating our services.

Long live, our democracy; long live Ghana.

Signed:

Eric Delanyo Alifo, Esq.

President of LINSOD

024 901 6517

Theophilus Dzimega, Esq.

Secretary of LINSOD

054 433 8321

John John Ndebugri Awuni, Esq.

Organizer of LINSOD

024 483 1350

“Lawyers in Search of Democracy (LINSOD),” is a group of like-minded Ghanaian lawyers, who are committed to playing a major role in advancing the frontiers of true democratic practice in Ghana. To that effect, LINSOD operates as a think-tank or a Civil Society Organization, mainly in the legal sector, and concerns itself with monitoring the conduct of Government and state institutions in relation to the Rule of Law and good governance in Ghana. Our goal is to work towards entrenching true democracy in Ghana, and that requires of us to be watchful and comment on topical governance subjects that have the tendency to negatively affect our democratic practice.

Source: Today.com.gh