Kwesi Pratt Jnr., Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, has questioned the validity of the FixtheCountry conveners' desire to carry guns during their rally on June 4th.
FixtheCountry leader Oliver Baker-Vormawor, as well as presenters Captain Smart and Okatakyie Afrifa, have been heavily chastised for their planned "armed" protest.
The group requested permission to bring guns with them, hire private security, and be given a spot on Ghana Television (GTV) to address the public in a letter to the police declaring their intention to demonstrate.
Letter
"We'll bring our own security firm to ensure protestors' safety." All firearms carried by protestors or contracted security personnel will be for personal protection only, and will be permissible under the Arms and Ammunitions Act of 1972. (NRCD 9) f) Proposed route and destination: The Demonstrators are expected to congregate at Circle.
"The Protestors will seek a slot on GTV to speak directly to the Nation and lay out our issues, in compliance with Article 55(11), which offers equitable chance to Ghanaians to present their programming to the public through equal access to the state-owned media," the letter added.
Restriction
The Ghana Police Service, on the other hand, has obtained an injunction from the Accra High Court to prevent the planned rally.
"The Court granted an injunction to stop the organisers, their agents, assigns, and whomever is claiming via them from going on the armed protest as had been anticipated," the Police said in a statement on Friday after hearing the application.
Apology
Following public criticism over the group's demands, several of the Movement's leaders have backed down, claiming they were unaware of the letter.
They apologized in a statement released on Thursday, June 2, 2022, stating, "We sincerely regret to the general public, particularly our fans. We want to emphasize that #FixtheCountry is a nonviolent democratic accountability campaign "..
"The demonstration's announcement mentioned private security measures to safeguard protestors. We also told the police that any guns owned by the private security business or other protestors would be officially registered in accordance with the applicable legislation. We picked an advocacy method that made some individuals uncomfortable in our attempt to deliberately spotlight policing brutality and other undesirable crowd control measures "They also noted.
FixtheCountry Activists are chastised by Pratt.
In response to the contents of the apology letter, Mr. Pratt stated that requesting a permit to use weapons, whether licensed or not, during a demonstration is ludicrous.
"Can a licensed gun not injure or kill a person?" he inquired.
"It's not acceptable; they made a mistake here and don't deserve our support; I believe the organization has to slow down and learn."
He asked when it became OK to perform demonstrations with licensed firearms.
"What has occurred in Ghana that requires us to take firearms to the streets?
...Just because the pistol is licensed doesn't mean you can walk about flaunting it everywhere," he said on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" program "the program
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