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The Minority in Parliament has released a statement condemning the Ghana Police Service for their arrest and the brutality inflicted on the #OccupyJulorbiHouse demonstrators.
This is their full statement
The Minority in Parliament is outraged at and disappointed in the Ghana Police Service for unleashing a terror squad of police officers who on Thursday shamefully brutalised and arrested peaceful protesters in Accra.
It is shocking and unacceptable that in 2023 officers of the Ghana Police Service wouldbresort to backward and archaic policing methods to counter peaceful protesters who were only manifesting their lawful and constitutionally-guaranteed right.
We condemn in no uncertain terms the police officers’ ruthless and barbaric crackdown on the unarmed peaceful protesters. For a police service that is badly and widely criticised for its partisan policing methods in recent years, and for which a parliamentary probe is currently ongoing, the 16th century style crackdown and terror unleashed by them on the peaceful protesters in Accra yesterday further dims the reputation of the Ghana Police Service. Even more shocking is the fact that the heinous and high-handedness of the policebis inconsistent with its motto of Service with Integrity.
Reports say as many as 49 unarmed civilians have been arrested and detained in various police cells in Accra while several others were brutalised and manhandled by officers of thebGhana Police Service. Even journalists who were carrying out their lawful duties were reportedly beaten and arrested by the police. This is unacceptable and undemocratic.
Never has there been a time in our recent democratic experience that a government would be this intolerant of divergent views and the right to publicly protest, and the sad events of Thursday represent a new low on this slippery path. It cannot be accepted that when citizens decide to express their right to protest, the police frustrates and scuttles the processes leading to the peaceful protest or where the protesters remain resolute by holding the protest, the police brutally cracks down on them.
The Minority is appalled that the Ghana Police Service is increasingly seen to be lending itself to a regime of terror and tyranny that is being meted out to critics of this intolerant
Akufo-Addo/Bawumia New Patriotic Party government. How can the Ghana Police justify its actions today by stating that they were as a result of “the flagrant disregard of the court process served on the organisers” of the demonstration? Since when has the Ghana Police
Service been clothed with the authority to punish people who disregard a lawful court order, assuming there was any such order? The courts are clothed with powers to deal with.
