You demonstrate at your own risk – Police to #FixTheCountry demo organizers

The Ghana Police Service says it is open to exploring all available avenues to ensure that the scheduled #FixTheCountry demonstration does not come off as intended.

What started this week on social media as a means to vent out on what many have described as the successive mismanagement of the country over the years, has blown up into a movement largely made of youths who say they want to demonstrate to drum home their demands.

In a letter signed by some 20 individuals to the Police, the #FixTheCountry movement said it has scheduled to embark on a demonstration on Saturday, May 9, 2021.

However, according to the Head of Public Affairs Unit of the Accra Regional Command of the Ghana Police Service, the planned demonstration will cumulate into a mass gathering which contravenes the imposition of restrictions instituted to manage the spread of COVID-19.

This according to the Police means the demonstration cannot be sanctioned for which it has communicated in that effect to the organizers of the protest.

“The police will not be able to provide the necessary security looking at the spread of Covid-19 and the kind of dangers that it poses to members of the public should they attend this demonstration,” DSP Effia Tenge stated in a Joy FM interview monitored by GhanaWeb.

The organizers in their letter outlined details on how it intends to ensure adherence to COVID-19 protocols but to the police “there is no way that we can be able to guarantee for a fact that such a large demonstrating public” will adhere to such a plan.

DSP Afia Tenge in the interview emphasized that the police will seek a court order to stop the protest if need be.

In a reaction to the statement by the Police, Oliver Barker-Vormavor, one of the conveners of the #FixTheCountry movement says the group intends to dialogue with the police and as well remind the police that it cannot be cowered.

The group member, however, reiterated that they will act in conformity with the constitution.