The government has urged drivers and the youth of Ashaiman to exercise "a great deal of restraint" in their protest against the state of the roads in the municipality.
Reacting to last Monday's demonstration by residents of Ashaiman, a deputy Minister of Information and Media Relations, Mr Felix Ofosu Kwakye, warned that the law would catch up with those found to have disturbed the peace in the area.
Drivers and a section of the youth in Ashaiman last Monday, embarked on a violent demonstration in protest against the poor conditions of roads in the municipality.
Mr Ofosu Kwakye told journalists yesterday at the Flagstaff House in Accra that, Ghana is a democratic state where citizens had the right to register their protest against anything that they perceived to be impacting negatively on their lives.
However, he said such protests should be done within the limits of the law.
"The right of citizens to protest is inalienable. But they should not engage in any activity to breach the peace in the country," he said.
The deputy minister dismissed the suggestion that the Ashaiman demonstration was similar to the protests that sparked the Arab spring.
"It is not appropriate to equate what happened in Ashaiman, to what happened elsewhere. There is no room for such a speculation," he said.
Touching on the presentation of the performance contract by ministers of state, Mr Ofosu Kwakye said President John Dramani Mahama was impressed with the presentations so far.
He said the presentations indicated that the various ministers had kept their programmes within the budgetary allocations.
Besides, the deputy minister said, the presentation also offered the scope for the identification of overlaps in the functions of the various ministers of state, and further spelt priority projects and objectives in line with the President's vision, he said.
The ministers of state who have appeared before the team of experts include the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Seth Terkper; the Minister of Information and Media Relations, Mr Mahama Ayariga; the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Nana Oye Lithur; the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Akwesi Oppong-Fosu; the Minister of Roads and Highways, Alhaji Amin Amidu Sulemani, and the Minister of Transport, Mrs Dzifa Aku Ativor.
By Musah Yahaya Jafaru
