Update: Gabby, others flogged; arrested at LMVC demo

A leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Gabby Asare Otchere Darko was beaten with baton and horse whips by the police at the Let My Vote Count Alliance demonstration in Accra.

There was total bedlam close to the Electoral Commission as the crowd veered off their approved route to present their petition to officials at the electoral body contrary to a court order restraining them from the security zone.

The police had to fire teargas and used water cannon to disperse the angry demonstrators who were marching to drum home for a new voters’ register.

“One [security officer] came from nowhere to beat me up,” Otchere-Darko told a reporter of Joy FM.

He later tweeted:

Whiles in police custody, another police officer walked to me to lash me with horse whip. Later, another two attacked me with batons.

— Gabby Otchere-Darko (@GabbyDarko) September 16, 2015

Other people sustained various injuries on their heads and other body parts as people run for cover.

“The police is also using water canon to restrain the crowd,” Starr News’ Kobby Gomez-Mensah reported from the scene. “There is no convergence… everyone has scattered.”

Gomez-Mensah said there was heavy Police presence at the premises of the Electoral Commission in Accra following threats by LMVCA and their counterparts that they will go ahead to picket at the premises.

About 20 people have been arrested including the convener of the LMVCA David Asante, reports say.

The Ghana Police Service secured an injunction Tuesday to restrain the LMVCA, the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) and the Movement for Change from picketing at the EC.

However, in a counter statement, the three pressure groups said: “The organisers of the unprecedented picketing at EC tomorrow [Wednesday], will like to assure the general public that the event is coming on as planned.

“We have met with the Police and they are ready to provide us with adequate security. And we have agreed on a route.

“We will converge from 6am to 8am at the Obra Spot on Wednesday, September 16 to begin our march to meet the Chairperson of the EC, Mrs Charlotte Osei, to picket at the Commission and present our petition. Accompanied by drumming and dancing, our all white protest is to drum home the case for a new voters’ register for 2016.”