UGM PLANS DEMONSTRATION ON JUNE FOUR

Accra The United Ghana Movement (UGM) will stage a public demonstration on June four to protest the government's rejection of the CHRAJ report, DR Charles Wereko-Brobby, the interim chairman, said today.

DR Wereko-Brobby said demonstrators will march through the streets of Accra under the slogan "Lets get PAID now". "PAID" is an acronym for a new call for "Probity, Accountability, Integrity and Democracy".

DR Wereko-Brobby, once a prominent member of the New Patriotic Party, told journalists at a news conference at his residence in Accra that the government's rejection of the CHRAJ report has stirred up anxiety among Ghanaians and "dangerously undermines the foundation of the country's young democracy. "We are very concerned about government's lukewarm attitude towards the constitution - especially the growing evidence of deliberate efforts to emasculate independent bodies established by the constitution to protect the freedoms and rights of the people," he said. He described CHRAJ as the most important independent constitutional body empowered to act as "the people's referee for determining whether public officials are observing probity, accountability and integrity in their official duties. "We cannot allow the subterfuge and confusion to go on for much longer. Otherwise people will begin to think that our paid watch-dog (the CHRAJ) is ineffective - a perception which can only encourage the misadventure of yet another self-declared gun-totting watchman".