A leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Asare Otchere Darko, has lashed out at the Ghana Police for manhandling demonstrators who took part in Wednesday’s demonstration to demand the creation of a new voters’ register.
The demonstration that sought to petition the Electoral Commission (EC), to replace the current voters’ register, ended abruptly, after police fired tear gas and bartered some demonstrators with batons and horsewhips.
According to the police, it only used required minimum force to disperse some of the violent demonstrators who had defied the route for the protest, a claim the organizers have rubbished.
Among the demonstrators allegedly manhandled were the NPP’s Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, whose bruises have since been treated at a hospital after he was bartered with batons and horse whips.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Thursday, the former Executive Director of the Danquah Institute denied breaking any law together with the demonstrators, insisting the police acted unprofessionally.
“Even where you break the law, the police have absolutely no right to use violence on you. I did not break any law. I was part of the protest and we got to a place where there was a standoff. That standoff was not violent because the protestors were trying to make a case to the police but the police kept asking them to go back and the next minute they just rushed on the protestors with batons and teargas; that’s really what happened. And I really think that for a democratic country so-called, there is no place for such violence.”
Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko said Wednesday’s incident is “backward” for a democratic country like Ghana, blaming the John Mahama-led administration for such occurrences.
“If this is John Mahama’s Ghana, then that’s not the Ghana he inherited. We were here when in 2008 after the second-round of elections without any police notice; the NDC led by the General Secretary stormed the Electoral Commission. Is that how they were treated when that happened? This can’t be democracy; we can’t say we have a democracy in Ghana if elections can be stolen and when you take steps to clean the electoral process; you are then assaulted and brutalized by police,” he fumed.
Mr. Asare Otchere-Darko said “as a Ghanaian I believed in the course so I was just there to exercise my right. It’s not as if I was one of the leaders or anything. Then for no reason when I was walking away peacefully during a standoff I am beaten with horsewhips and batons. We shouldn’t allow our democracy to go this way,” he reiterated.
The police say over twenty of the demonstrators have been arrested and would be processed for court.
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By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana