General News of Thursday, 21 March 2013

Source: Citi FM

Don't use ministries road, police warn AFAG

The Greater Accra Regional Police Command has cautioned pressure group Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) they will face the full rigours of the law if they fail to adhere to their directive not to use the ministries road.

AFAG has set March 26 for its intended demonstration in Accra called 'The Boiling Point Demo', which it is says is aimed at mobilising Ghanaians to express their frustrations at what the group describes as the unbearable hardships being inflicted on them.

According to AFAG’s Director of Operations, Davis Opoku: “The reason for the demonstration obviously is as a result of the hardships Ghanaians are going through under President Mahama’s leadership.”

The group has however been cautioned against using the ministries road for its intended march by the Police.

Speaking on Citi Eyewitness News, DSP Freeman Tettey described as unfortunate the position adopted by the group, noting that after satisfying the Public Order section 1, they [AFAG] refused to reappear for further deliberations.

“We made it clear to AFAG that the ministries is a working environment and we would not want activities to be disrupted at the ministries area because of the demonstration. This is because it will be difficult for us to control their movements because there are a lot of people who are there," he said.

"There are certain issues that we need to meet and further discuss so we are expecting AFAG to come back so that we sit down and discuss. It is quite unfortunate that they have made their position clear that they are going to defy the public order. It is unfortunate that we will make laws for ourselves as a country and people will say we are going to go against it."

DSP Tettey further explained: “There are people who are doing legitimate business at this place so we want to spell out an alternative route by having a discussion with them because we need to agree on the route.”

"We are still open to discussions but for the ministries road, it will be difficult for us but we want to tell them that there are alternatives. We are not stopping them from demonstrating; we just want to enforce the public order act,” he added.