The Minority in Parliament has said they have demonstrated good faith towards the processes leading to the #OccupyBoG demonstration set to come off Tuesday, October 3, 2023 after the police failed to prove service of injunction on the organizers in court on Friday.
Despite calls by a section of Ghanaians to ignore the police to carry on the demonstration, it has disclosed that the group needed to set an example as Members of Parliament by obeying the laws, the reason they will not allow the cops to cow them from undertaking what is a constitutional right to them.
Minority Chief Whip, Governs Kwame Agbodza has been telling TV3’s Komla Klutse Friday, September 29, 2023, that the police cannot be arbitrary in its dealings whilst the laws of the land specify what is required of them.
According to him, the peace enforcement agency had agreed to provide for the team, protection on Tuesday, October 3. However, the turn around to service an injunction to prevent them from embarking on the demo was a surprise to the group, the reason he is personally happy the case of the police was “thrown away”.
An Accra High Court held on Friday, September 29, that, the processes of service of an injunction by the police to conveners of the demonstration to bar them from carrying out the protest as ineffective after three of the four organisers were serviced.
The demonstration which was initially scheduled for September 5 this year had to be postponed to October 3 due to the injunction suit filed by the police. But the Minority says the arbitrariness of the police will not stop them from organising the protest.
“You noticed that the Minority and our partners in this demonstration have demonstrated faith with the laws of this country. Some people thought we should have ignored the police and done the demonstration in time past but we believe that as Members of Parliament we needed to set example so we decided to do that and since then we’ve had further discussions with the police and the police officially wrote to us confirming that Tuesday is the day they are ready to let us do the demonstration and the route has been approved but all of a sudden we hear the police in bad faith, attempting to resurrect an issue which does not exist so I’m happy the court threw their case away today,” he exclusively told TV3.
Speaking about preparations of the group, he said “we are very much ready, we have been having our community engagement across the country to let the people know the reason they must demonstrate as part of the #OccupyBoG.”
The Member of Parliament for Adaklu was confident the police were going to provide them the necessary security on the day of the protest despite the court asking them to properly service their respondents before their injunction application would be heard.
“The issues are many and we are going to have a very peaceful demonstration and I’m very confident the police are going to be there to provide the necessary protection for the law-abiding Ghanaians who are going to be there to embark on the demonstration,” he was confident.
READ ALSO: #OccupyBoG demo: Protest to come off as police fail to serve injunction on conveners
