General News of Saturday, 8 May 2021

Source: 3news.com

#FixTheCountry demo: Akufo Addo must intervene to protect his human rights record – Kpebu

President Akufo-Addo is being urged to bring finality to calls by #FixTheCountry campaigners President Akufo-Addo is being urged to bring finality to calls by #FixTheCountry campaigners

A constitutional Lawyer, Martin Kpebu has called on the President, Akufo Addo to intervene in the matter between the #FixTheCountry movement and the police to allow the demonstrators to have their day.

On Thursday, May 6 the Ghana Police Service got an injunction from an Accra High Court restraining the organizers of the social media campaign from going on demonstration on May 9.

The court ruled that the planned protest is prohibited until the restriction on public gathering is lifted.

Leading members of the social media campaign were invited by the police into a meeting on Thursday but were met on arrival by other Ministers including, the Minister for Interior, the Attorney General, Interior Minister, the Foreign Affairs Minister and the National Security Minister.

According to Lawyer Martin Kpebu, the action of the police smacks of bad faith and betrayal, especially because the police had a fruitful meeting with the organizers but still went ahead to secretly secure injunction against the event.

He cited a similar incident in which the current Executive Secretary to the President, Nana Asante Bediatuo in the case of the ‘Let my Vote Count” demonstration in 2015 went to court and challenged the ex-parte order and the court ruled that was wrong.

The organizers have served notice to go on appeal but Mr. Martin Kpebu who made the remarks on the 3FM’s Sunrise Morning Show said “In the interim, because the appeal cannot be heard before the 9th of May, I will respectfully and humbly appeal to His Excellency the President to step in quietly if not publicly because he is a human rights activist. There are very few people who have the human rights credentials that the President have so it’s strange that under his watch such things will happen”.



“So, they can grant some of the demonstrators certain numbers that the police can handle otherwise this would dent his human rights record”.

The group cited ‘dumsor’, unemployment and poor healthcare systems as enough reasons to embark on the demonstration.