National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, has said that the Arise Ghana Coalition will resist any attempt by the Ghana Police Service to impede its intended demonstration.
According to him, the Police and the organisers of the demonstration, including himself, had an agreement on the demonstration, only for the Police to come out with a statement saying something different.
Mr Gyamfi added that Arise Ghana was cooperating with the Police and had made several compromises to agree with the Police on ending their demonstration at 8:00 pm.
“We told the Police that because of the length of our speeches, the demonstration may go beyond 6:00 pm and we have made ample arrangement for lighting… and you (the Police) have agreed with us that we should close at 8:00 pm. If DCOP Suraj (Director of Operations at the Police) is listing to me, come out and deny whether you are not the one who proposed 8:00 pm as closure time for this demonstration.
“The demonstration will come off, and it will be peaceful. If Dampare wants to be violent, if he wants to be unprofessional like some have been, and he wants to attack peaceful demonstrators, we are not afraid of guns. We are not afraid of anything.”
He alleged that the government was behind the change in behaviour of the Police to frustrate the demonstration.
The Ghana Police Service has indicated that it has filed a suit in court for the determination of the duration of the planned demonstration by Arise Ghana Coalition.
According to the Police, the suit it filed was necessitated by the lack of agreement with the organisers of the demonstration on when the protest should start, and the time it should end.
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