Security personnel from the Ghana Police Service on Saturday, June 6, 2020, disrupted and arrested some group of persons for holding the #BlackLivesMatter vigil at the Black Star Square in Accra without a permit from the police.

Leader of the Economic Fighters, Ernesto Yeboah, who front-lined the peaceful protest was arrested by the police and charged with failure to notify the police of a special event contrary to the Public Order Act, 1994 (Act 491) section. He was later granted bail by the court amounting to GH¢100,000 after pleading guilty.

His arrest has since sparked massive debate, in a poll conducted by GhanaWeb, a total of 1,219 votes representing 61.47% were not in support of the police arresting the protestors. Notwithstanding, 644 respondents, representing 32.48% believed that the police did not in any way erred for stopping the #BlackLivesMatter vigil while 6.05% of respondents were not either-or against the motion.

The Public Order Act requires any person who desires to hold a special event to notify in writing the police of his intention to do so not less than five days before the date of the special event.

Here is the link to the poll



Results from this poll is only representative of participants and therefore can not be generalised.

Background

GhanaWeb launched its polls in May with the first question being: Should the EC go ahead with the new register?

This poll question gained 141,132 responses in 48 hours and over 2,000 people commented under the poll expressing divergent views about the Electoral Commission and the new voters’ register.

The GhanaWeb Poll is an open-access poll that allows participants to self-select into participation. The results of the poll cannot be generalized, but are only representative of the participants of the poll.

The poll seeks to enable GhanaWeb readers to predict the opinions of Ghanaians on issues and decisions that affect the country.