Govt ambushed #FixTheCountry conveners - Social policy advisor

A social policy advisor Felix K. Addo, has pointed out that the conveners of the #FixTheCountry movement were ambushed in a meeting that was intended to be between them and the Inspector General of Police(IGP) to discuss security issues concerning their planned protest on Sunday, May 9.

He said this in an interview with Berla Mundi on the New Day show on TV3, Monday, May 10.

Mr. Addo was speaking on the back of the Ex Parte Injunction secured against the protest by the #FixTheCountry movement and the subsequent meeting the conveners were invited to attend between them and the Inspector General of Police(IGP) but turned out to be a meeting between the conveners, the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Interior, the Attorney General, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of National Security.

He said “that is where we know that heads have started knocking, it means that the little thing that this group did and started has really gotten to the high hierarchy of government leadership.Now she made mention of the inconsistencies in government communication, which over the years we have seen, I mean Ministry of Information is key when it has to do with gathering information from all ministries and agencies to be able to have one mouthpiece of information. But here lies the case that we go into a meeting and I know very well, at least from afar, when you go into such meetings your phones are taken from you.

“Yes, most especially when it has to do with national security issues like this, your phones are taken from you at the security checkpoint over there. So how come that in one breath, one stakeholder within the meeting said: oh you were in there and you were still giving information to your people outside and probably telling them what we have not even said over here. Then an official mouthpiece of government comes out, signed by an astute journalist we all know and says that, no, their phones were taken from them, where do we go from here?.

“And if indeed the meeting was called by the IGP, it supposed to mean that, I don’t know where the meeting was held though but if it was called by the IGP, I am supposed to know that it was supposed to be held at the Police Headquarters. Where the IGP will superintend the meeting, whatever happens will give a security briefing because they are the first point of call that they wrote the letter to, that we want to go on this demonstration, we need your security. So at what point did the Minister of National Security come in? At what point did the Attorney General come in? At what point did the Minister of Information come in? And other state actors come in. It means that they were in a sort ambushed. If I have a letter of invitation from you, knowing that I’m coming to meet Berla Mundi, you are supposed to state categorically how many people are going to be in the meeting, the top hierarchy who is going to be there.



“So that I will also build my arsenal, in one way or the other, knowing very well that we are having a legal representation in the meeting, as big as the Attorney General is going to be there, Minister of Interior is going to be there, National Security is going to be there so that I will be well represented probably by our legal representation over there but when you bring all these people, you take me by surprise. You are the people firing me with all the questions and I say something because you are the ones in the helm of affairs, I’m going to find it very difficult, in one way I’m going to be intimidated”.

He went on to say that “so this clearly tells us that the synergy amongst our institutions, our state agencies sometimes there are lapses elsewhere, knowing very well that this is an issue we must be able to identify all the state actors, relay the information to these campaigners, let them know that when you come into meeting, this and this are the ministries that you are going to be meeting. It will be represented by the director or even the deputy minister over there or even the minister himself, then when I’m coming, whatever information I need to satisfy each and every person at the meeting, I will prepare and prepare adequately. I see it that, yes they have state power, incumbency and all that, the campaigners, I will classify that as an ambush to the campaigners”.