The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has condemned the Ghana Police Service and the Judiciary for what the party describes as the ‘high-handedness’ towards some protestors who took to the streets on Sunday, September 22, to demonstrate against the menace of illegal mining.

The PPP stated in a letter dated September 26, 2024, that the Police Service and the Judiciary of Ghana dealt wrongly with the protestors who were protesting within the remits of the law.

A group of demonstrators, otherwise known as the 'Democracy Hub', on Sunday, September 22, embarked on a demonstration across some principal streets in Accra to register their displeasure about the negative impact of illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, thereby calling for the declaration of a state of emergency as a way of putting a stop to all forms of small-scale mining.

The demonstration saw a turn of events as the police arrested some persons supposedly flouting the law.

However, the PPP maintains that the arrest of minors, as well as a four-month pregnant woman and others who clearly could not have been part of the demonstration, was against their fundamental human rights.

The PPP further expressed disappointment over the inability of the police to clamp down on persons who have been fingered as the kingpins in galamsey activities. Instead, they resorted to the arrest of persons who have committed what the PPP describes as minor crimes.

"It is even very disappointing that for persons who are alleged to have been engaged in minor offenses like unlawful assembly, an independent judge decided not to even take their pleas but remanded them into prison and police custody, including the four-month pregnant woman and her husband who were simply bystanders but were mistakenly arrested.”

“We call on the Judiciary to be bold and defend the rights of all Ghanaians and the vulnerable.”