Why arrest #FixTheCountry campaigners while Sir John’s funeral organisers walk free? – Sam George asks Police

The Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Samuel Nartey George has questioned the rationale for the arrest of some #FixTheCountry campaigners on the premises of the High Court complex by the Police on Friday.

Actress Efia Odo and 11 others were arrested supposedly for unlawful gathering while holding placards and taking photographs when the court went on recess. They have since been released on bail.

But the Ningo Prampam legislator, is wondering why the protesters should be arrested for unlawful assembly while the organiser’s of the funeral of the late General Secretary of the NPP, Sir John, are walking free. “The country appears to be working with two different laws,” he said.

This, he said is because the funeral of the late Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, was characterized by the total disregard for the Covid-19 safety protocols, yet it was not interrupted by the Police. Neither has the organisers of the event been brought to book.

Again, he described as unlawful gathering, the mammoth welcome President Akufo-Addo receives from people, including students when he tours the country.

“You would have expected the Police service to go about shutting down the funeral of Sir John, or the crowds that we are seeing accompany His Excellency, the President as he is campaigning, those are unlawful assemblies. I mean the crowds that have been lined up – the school children lined up intentionally to await the arrival of the President, is an unlawful assembly. It is an unlawful gathering, did they seek the Public Order Act?

“They are more than the protestors but the police are not shutting them down. So we seem to have two regimes of law,” he said.

Mr Sam George expressed the view that the arrest of the campaigners was based on a dubious agenda.

“You think that the arrest of these protestors was just on the whimps and caprices of the Police? You think it is not because somebody also called and said these people are causing a nuisance and making the government unpopular so go and arrest?

“If someone sitting somewhere thinks these people are creating a nuisance and making the government look bad, so let’s teach them a lesson, you would want to expect them to use that power for good,” he suggested.

According to Mr George, having “10 to 15 people holding placards simply not obstructing traffic, not being a nuisance to the public, not disturbing the public peace, but simply asking for the country to be fixed, I struggle to see the rationale behind it.”

He noted that the Police should be a little more advanced in their enforcement of the law.

“The Police should be reminded that in fixing the country, their colleagues who escort bullion vans would be given proper protection. The Police should be reminded that if this country is fixed, the state in which many Police officers live in the barracks, which is akin to chickens in a hen coop will be fixed,” he added.

Meanwhile, the actress and 11 other campaigners who have been granted bail, are expected to report to the Police on Monday to assist with investigations.

Also, the High Court has thrown out the police injunction against the #FixTheCountry protest.

The application, the court said is moot because, the date for the protest, May 9, which the police did not agree to, has long elapsed.

Source: Ghana News