Political Pressure group, the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) says its much publicized �Red Revolution Demonstration� in protest against the decision by the Dr. Afari Djan led Electoral Commission to create 45 new constituencies, has been called off after the Ghana Police Service decided not to give them the go-ahead even threatened to secure an interim injunction to halt the demonstration if need be.
The �Red Revolution Demonstration� was initially scheduled take place on Tuesday, September 25, but the political pressure group say, the Police Service, after agreeing to and approving their routes has reneged on its word.
AFAG however says it is �unperturbed� by this latest setback and �orchestrations, frustrations and threats� by their detractors.
At a press conference held in Accra today to announce the postponement of the protest march, AFAG revealed that as has been the standard practice, the group, in accordance with the public order act 491 (1994), wrote to the Ghana Police Service to notify them of their intended demonstration; a request which was duly granted by the Ghana Police Service.
But AFAG says, a few hours short of the d-day, the police service say their planned protest march cannot go-ahead.
�This is indeed mind boggling. We do not at this stage want to postulate that there are some orders from above dictating the turn of events as far as our demonstration is concerned....We are however assuring all that AFAG is still resolute and would never be perturbed by the orchestrations, frustrations and threats of our detractors. Today the powers that be have had their way but someday, the majority of Ghanaians will also have their say,� leaders of AFAG said in a statement read at the press conference.
Below is a copy of the statement read at the AFAG Press confab.
GHANA POLICE HOUNDS AFAG!
Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the press and thank you for honoring our invitation at such short notice. We are indeed grateful.
We have invited you here today to pour out our hearts on some unfortunate developments within and without the Ghana Police Service and AFAG respectively.
As you all gathered here would bear us out, AFAG has for some time now focused its advocacy on the Electoral Commission of Ghana. The first as you may all recall was a press conference dated August 28, 2012 and captioned �Afari Djan; Rescind Your Decision or Ghanaians Will Speak�. Couple of days ago, AFAG again organized yet another press conference with the caption �Red Revolution Demonstration�.
It is worthy of note that in all of these press conferences, AFAG expressed its utmost disgust about the decision of the Dr. Afari Djan led Electoral Commission to create 45 new constituencies and subsequently promised some series of actions to be undertaken by the group. Cardinal among these was presentation of petitions to some credible and respectable institutions in the country as well as some selected Embassies and High Commissions in Ghana. The latter was informed by the fact that as a member of the community of nations; Ghana could not be treated as an Island since the entire world stood to suffer in the event of any electoral mishap.
True to our word, we have successfully done so and anyone interested could ascertain the veracity of our claims or otherwise.
Again, we also sought to register our displeasure with the Electoral Commission by embarking upon what we dubbed as the �Red Revolution Demonstration� which was slated for Tuesday, 25th to Thursday, 27th of September, 2012.
Ladies and gentlemen, as has been the standard practice, the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), in accordance with the public order act 491 (1994), on Wednesday, 12th September 2012, duly wrote to the Ghana Police Service to notify them on our intent to embark on the demonstration. This notification included the routes to be used by demonstrators on the day.
It should be made clear to all that the request of AFAG was duly granted by the Ghana Police Service.
Thus AFAG was cleared to undertake the �Red Revolution Demonstration� on the 25 to 27 September, 2012 using routes agreed upon by the leadership of AFAG and the Police Service. We wish to place on record, that as a group the approval of our carefully selected routes gave us a major boost, since the general public whose support we seek to court would have felt the impact of the Red Revolution. This was however never meant to be.
Ladies and gentlemen, it would interest you to note, that some days later, the Police Service which had agreed to and approved our routes invited the leadership of AFAG to a meeting only to renege on the agreement reached earlier. To demonstrate their seriousness and unpreparedness to guard and protect demonstrators, the police promised to secure an interim injunction to halt the demonstration if we insisted on using the same routes the police had approved only few days back. This is indeed mind boggling. We do not at this stage want to postulate that there are some orders from above dictating the turn of events as far as our demonstration is concerned.
Ladies and gentlemen in view of this development, coupled with our commitment to the tenets of peaceful protests, AFAG in the interest of public good, is forced to announce the postponement for the second time an intended demonstration due to orchestration by the powers that be and ably supported by institutions of state to make room for further engagements.
We are however assuring all that AFAG is still resolute and would never be perturbed by the orchestrations, frustrations and threats of our detractors.
Today the powers that be have had their way but someday, the majority of Ghanaians will also have their say.
Thank you.
Signed
Henry Asante
Arnold Boateng
Bright Acheampong
Kwaku Ohene Djan
Williams Agyei
Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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