30 Lawyers Declare Support for ?Wahala? Organisers

The Committee for Joint Action (CJA) says it has accepted the legal battle thrown to it by retired Captain Baah Achamfour, who has filed a writ against the Committee leadership and has further sought a court injunction on the CJA, preventing it from organizing any further demonstrations.

A leading member of the committee, Mr. Kwesi Pratt Jnr. who is also the communications director for the Convention People?s Party sad on PeaceFM today that the CJA is ready to open its defence in court on the writ filed by the retired Captain.

The retired Captain yesterday filed a writ at an Accra High Court suing nine leaders of the CJA including Mr. Kwasi Pratt Jnr., for allowing former President Jerry Rawlings to equate President John Kufuor to ?a notorious armed robber, a thief and a devil? when the CJA held its second wahala march against the ?30,000 increase in the price of petroleum products.

The CJA which has organised four demonstrations so far; two in Accra, one in Wa in the Upper West Region and the other in Ho, the Volta Regional Capital asking for a reduction in the tax net, which it says has accounted for the high petrol price in the country.

Mr. Pratt said the injunction placed on them from organizing further demonstrators against the government will even help them win more people to back them in their call on the government to reduce the tax net which will in turn lead to a reduction in the price of petroleum products.

He said as at this morning, more than 30 lawyers had declared their intention to defend the CJA and are hopeful of winning the case in court.

In a related development, the chairman of the Christian Council of Ghana, Most Rev. Dr. Robert Aboagye Mensah has stated that it is not true that the Council has taken a position to make government reduce the price of petrol. Rev. Aboagye Mensah was reacting to a statement made by Mr. Pratt who alleged that the Christian Council had appealed to government to reduce the price of petrol.

According to Rev. Aboagye Mensah, the Christian Council reminded government on its promise to institute measures to cushion the lives of the ordinary people and urged the government to stick to it.