Butu butu in Kumasi, but no casualties

It was "Kumepreko" (you might as well kill me) in Accra and it was "Siemepreko" (you might as well bury me) in Kumasi.

According to the Free Press, an estimated 500,000 people poured into Kumasi last week for the "Siemepreko" demonstration. By 10 am half of the population of Kumasi has poured into the streets chanting anti-Rawlings, anti- VAT songs.


Early reports that the local NDC had organised a counter pro-VAT demonstrators, principally from the Association of the Committee for the Defence of the Revolution (ACDRs), like they did in the Accra Kumepreko charged the people, and dared any member of the ACDR to show their faces.


The paper went on, behind that report came the news that all NDC top men in Kumasi had been kept under safe custody at the Regional office, apparently fearing reprisal for the action of the ACDRs in the Accra demonstration which left 12 people dead.


The military were then called in to cordon off the Regional Office area, fearing that the leaders might be lynched if they were exposed to the demonstrators.

By 9 am the previous day, over 10,000 people had already gathered at Kejetia area in central Kumasi.


By 10 am on the day of the demonstration, the entire place had turned into a sea of red-red bands, red shirts, red flags and red placards.


Some of the placards read "The Blood of the martyrs shall be upon Rawlings", J.J. must go", "NDC has fallen". Almost all shops remained shut.