1st November, 2010

Press Statement – For Immediate Release

3RD ANNIVERSARY
OF POLICE BRUTALTIES AND KILLINGS IN ANLO.

Today 1st November 2010, marks the 3rd anniversary of Black Thursday in Anlo, a day on which the Government of Ghana unlawfully deployed the police and military to Anloga and its environs in an attempt to foist a self-styled regent as the substantive Awoamefia of Anlo. The police shot and killed three people who were among those who resisted the attempted illegal installation. Another person died in police custody because of police brutalities. Several others suffered gunshots, baton and truncheon injuries. The police conducted a mass arrest during which close to 120 persons – young people, the elderly, students and teachers - were arrested and subjected to beatings and inhuman treatment and thrown into overcrowded police cells in Anloga, Keta and finally at Ho, the Volta Regional capital.

Over the period, a dusk to dawn curfew imposed by the police routinely harassed and subjected innocent citizens to assault and battery, whilst several houses and shrines were vandalized and desecrated. This state of affairs forced hundreds of young persons to flee Anloga for fear of police brutalities to live in other parts of the country. Since then many more people have died with loss of property and livelihoods as a result of the brutalities suffered at the hands of the various agents of Government involved.

Despite the flagrant acts of abuse of state power against Anlo and the violation of people’s human rights and liberties, the Government of Ghana is yet to institute investigations into the events of that unfortunate Thursday, November 1, 2007 to hold accountable perpetrators of the brutal attack on the people of Anlo. Government, to this day, continues to ignore the pain and trauma of Anlo in utter disregard of the relevant constitutional provisions of Ghana.

Several petitions to the then President of Ghana John Agyekum Kuffour by the Chiefs and people of Anlo, petitions to government and its institutions at the time by well meaning Anlos were all ignored. Three years on today, the situation has not changed. The Government of the day continues to ignore in entirety our faith and trust in the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana which has been breached since the State sponsored brutalities of of 1st November, 2007.

It is in this regard that we the Anlo Youth Council wish to acknowledge the ultimate sacrifice by those who died in defense of Anlo, the injured and maimed as well as those who lost property or had their property destroyed without as much as an official inquiry into the cause of the unrest and subsequent loss of life.

In pursuit of our demands for social justice, peace and security for Anlo, as well as all other Ghanaians, we humbly but emphatically re-iterate our call on the Government of Ghana to do justice to the people of Anlo. This, Government can do by instituting an official enquiry immediately without any further delay, to find out the cause of what happened and to hold accountable those found culpable.


Mayor AGBLEZE
(President, Anlo Youth Council)
024 458 4835