Ashanti NDC to go ahead with protest march

Kumasi, June 11, GNA- The Ashanti Region National Democratic Congress (NDC) has said it will defy police directives and go ahead with its planned protest march in Kumasi if the Regional Police Administration continued to prevent them from exercising their constitutional right.

Mr Emmanuel Nti-Fordjour, the Regional Chairman, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Wednesday that they were getting worried and apprehensive about police directives that there could not be enough policemen to provide security for the protesters because of a' special security exercise' in Kumasi.

"We are certainly not going to allow this to happen for the third time", he said, adding that, they were ready to go on the streets without police protection.

He noted that it was within th! eir constitutional right to stage the demonstration.

Mr Nti-Fordjour gave the assurance that the protest march dubbed "Kafo Didi" would be peaceful and violent free, saying, the party has told its supporters and sympathisers who could not comport themselves to stay away. He said the NDC was not at war with the government but that all it wanted was to convey to the government was that "Ghanaians are dying from its suffocating economic policies and taxation".

The NDC Regional Chairman appealed to the party's rank and file to remain calm and assured them that the protest march would definitely come off. The march was initially slated for May 27, 2003, but was called off following disagreement over the route to be used by the protesters between the party and the police.

It was then rescheduled for June 10, but once again had to be postponed when the Regional Police Administration informed the organisers that the date coincided with the start of a three-week special security exercise to be undertaken in the region and for that matter, there could not be enough policemen to provide security for the protesters.