Journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni has lambasted the organizers of a planned march on June 4, 2022, claiming that their demands indicated that they were plotting an insurgency.
Manasseh stated in a social media post dated June 1, 2022 that the group's proposal was inappropriate.
"An insurgency, not a protest, requires authority. This is intolerable "his message read.
The demonstrators' desire to hire a private security agency to provide security, along with requests to picket at the Police Headquarters and the GBC, has been widely denounced.
Captain Smart, a prominent part of the organizers, said in an interview on 3FM that he was opposed to the alleged request to carry weapons during the demonstration, which was later canceled by police.
Background to the planned demonstration on June 4th
Protest organizers wrote to the Ghana Police Service, requesting permission to host a three-day protest beginning June 4th.
Journalists Okatakyie Afrifa Mensah and Captain Godsbrain Smart, one Benjamin Darko, and lawyer and activist Oliver Barker-Vormawor are among the organizers.
During the march, the demonstrators would use the services of armed private security officers, according to the letter. They have announced plans to protest both the police headquarters and the state broadcaster's offices, where they hope to be able to convey their concerns on LIVE television.
The demonstration, on the other hand, was classified by the police as being in violation of the Public Order Act.
The "nature and character" of the protest as envisaged was contradictory with the Public Order Act, according to a press statement issued by Chief Inspector Bright Kwabena Danso, Regional Public Affairs Unit, Ashanti Region, on June 1, 2022.
"As a result, we are unable to provide protection for a protest that is in flagrant violation of the Public Order Act, 1994 (Act 49) and has the potential to disrupt public order and safety," the statement said.
"In the interest of public safety and security, the Police are putting in place all necessary precautions to guarantee that unauthorised people do not march the streets with weapons," the statement said.
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