Leaders of a group calling itself MAFORT have expressed disappointment at the West Akyem Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), for refusing to receive their petition.
The group had embarked on demonstration against the deplorable state of the Asamankese road.
[contextly_sidebar id=”zsERcN89FA6PyOVudJd0ikjoX82bxNMR”]According to the leader of the group, Kingsley Ofosu, the MCE allegedly rejected the petition, citing that it was a politically motivated exercise.
“All efforts were made to let him understand that the group MAFORT was not a political one, we are even a non-partisan group,” he said.
According to him, they were angry because they needed him to forward their complaints to authorities adding, “we are highly disappointed at him because we needed him to receive the petitions so that the president will know that he had received the petition on his behalf and that the cry of the people in the Eastern Region will be heard.”
However, reacting to the allegation made by the demonstrators, the MCE of the area, George Mensah Akpalu rejected the claims that he refused the petition saying: “I did not reject their petition because the Coordinating Director took it on my behalf.”
He argued that the demonstrators did not go by the rules of demonstration.
“There are rules and laws governing demonstrations and so before you demonstrate you should follow the rules,” he explained.
He argued that the demonstrators should have informed authorities about their move before they embarked on demonstrating adding “they should have said we were demonstrating from point A to B and when [we] get to point B, [we] will do this and that and these are clearly explained to the security concerned.”
“We did well to protect them during the demonstration which was the most important,” he added.
By: Patricia Conteh /citifmonline.com/Ghana