‘Occupy Flagstaff House’ demo rocks Accra
Four people who joined hundreds of protesters in the ‘Occupy Flagstaff House’ demonstration were yesterday arrested near the Afrikiko Restaurant in Accra for going against police instructions.
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While three were released on the way to the Police Headquarters, one was granted a GH¢5,000 bail and asked to report himself at the headquarters of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) at the Police Headquarters today.
The police had cordoned off the Afrikiko Restaurant, which became the alternative meeting point after the police had prevented the protestors from marching on the streets from the Efua Sutherland Children’s Park to the Flagstaff House.
The police had ordered that the protestors leave the road, as they were obstructing traffic on the 37 Military Hospital-Accra side of the road but those arrested were reluctant to do so.
Just when the police had pushed the arrested demonstrators into a pick-up, Mr Kofi Bentil, the Vice-President and Strategy Manager of IMANI Ghana, joined them in the vehicle, insisting that he was their lawyer.
Organised by Concerned Ghanaians for Responsible Governance (CGRG), which used social media to mobilise about 300 protestors, the protest march, according to the organisers, was to draw the government’s attention to issues, including the erratic power supply, the sliding cedi, constant increases in taxes, fuel shortage, economic hardships and the non-implementation of the Senchi Consensus, for it to find solutions to the challenges facing the country.
The gathering
Many of the protesters belonged to the middle class, including Ace Kojo Ankomah, a legal practitioner; Yoofi Grant of Databank; Dr Esi Ansah, a lecturer at the Ashesi University; Kofi Kapito, the Chief Executive Officer of the Consumer Protection Agency; Comfort Ocran of Legacy and Legacy; Ken Ofori-Atta, a co-Founder of Databank; Selorm Branttie, the Communications Director of IMANI Ghana; a former Chief Marketing Officer of MTN, George Andah, and others who took turns to address the crowd.
Clad mainly in red and black attire, the protestors carried placards with messages including, “Things must change now”, “Rescue the value of Ghana”, “Yentie Obia”, “Boys abre”, “The King is naked”, “Ghanafuo abre”, “JM, Stop the corruption and think outside the box” and “Mahama Aden?”.
Mr Kapito rallied all Ghanaians, especially professionals, to stand up for the country, saying, “It is about time we stopped sitting on the bench. This has nothing to do with NDC or NPP.”
Drama
There were dramatic scenes at the Efua Sutherland Children’s Park as the police, who insisted that the initial agreement was for the protestors to gather at the park, while their leaders took their petition to the Flagstaff House, locked the gate of the park.
The move appeared to have gingered the protesters and they began chanting, “We want to go home! We want to go home!”
When the crowd grew bigger at the entrance and began to force their way out of the park, the police eventually opened the gate and marched alongside the protestors until they reached the National Theatre, where the police formed a wall to prevent them from moving further.
Chanting slogans and singing patriotic songs, the crowd danced, while some of them described the police action as a violation of their right to demonstrate.
For more than 45 minutes there was a hold-up, as the demonstrators and the police failed to reach a compromise.
“You cannot go beyond this point and that is not negotiable,” the Head of the Police Public Relations Directorate, DSP Cephas Arthur, warned when some of the protestors approached him.
Not even the rains in the morning could deter the protestors, as some of them picketed in front of police armoured vehicles and refused to leave.
Afrikiko rat race
Eventually, the protestors pulled back and decided to converge on the Afrikiko Restaurant.
The movement of the police armoured vehicles was greeted with boos.
Even before the protestors got to Afrikiko, the police had blocked the entrance to the area.
With their front divided, some of the protestors remained at the Ako Adjei Interchange; others converged in front of TV3 Network, while the remaining group had a rat race with the police at the Afrikiko Restaurant.
Battle-ready riot policemen, armed with tear gas canisters, took positions in front of the crowd, warding off any attempt to get close to the Flagstaff House.
Flagstaff House
At 12:05 p.m., the Convener of the CGRG, Nana Kwesi Awuah, read the petition to the crowd, stating that ever since the government took office, “Ghanaians have to grapple with extreme discomfort, lowered productivity, the ever-rising rate of inflation and continuous loss of their purchasing power”.
“Ghanaians have to come to grips with limited access to essential services such as quality education and health care. Further, Ghanaians have to come to grips with poor quality of service provided by the utility companies, which turns out to be a mismatch to the constant increment in utility tariffs,” he said.
Eventually, after a haggle with the police, five leaders of the demonstrators were allowed into the Flagstaff House to present the petition.
The Deputy Chief of Staff, Ms Valerie Sawyer, who received the petition, pledged that the government would look into it and respond to the concerns of the petitioners.
She said while the government appreciated the concerns listed in the petition, it would also welcome solutions to the numerous challenges in the petition.