{"id":156009,"date":"2015-09-30T09:34:09","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T09:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=156009"},"modified":"2015-09-30T12:05:08","modified_gmt":"2015-09-30T12:05:08","slug":"igp-justifies-injunction-against-lmvc-demo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/09\/igp-justifies-injunction-against-lmvc-demo\/","title":{"rendered":"IGP justifies Injunction against LMVC demo"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Alhassan has defended a decision to stop the Let My Vote Count Alliance group from staging a demonstration in the country.<\/p>\n

[contextly_sidebar id=”FMtVQq3gV9Wnpk6BdDS5nNecR2USqrov”]The Police had secured an injunction<\/a><\/strong><\/span> to prevent the group from embarking on a demonstration yesterday [Tuesday].<\/p>\n

Addressing the media at a press conference in Accra, the IGP \u00a0said \u201cthe Police does not go to court to prevent anyone from exercising their right to demonstrate\u201d but \u201csometimes, we do that given what trend analysis and assessment we have done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes we need to organize ourselves. It takes resources, men, vehicles and equipment so that we can better police the demonstration. It has never been, and will never be the intention of Police to stop anyone from exercising their right to demonstration but we need to get ourselves in readiness in order to be able to police it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Let My Vote Count Alliance embarked on a demonstration few weeks ago to demand a new voters register but apparent the peaceful protest turned violent<\/a><\/strong><\/span> when the Police tried to prevent them from using an unapproved route.<\/p>\n

The group had decided to stage another protest in a bid to present a petition to the Electoral Commission.<\/p>\n

\u2018Unseen hands\u2019 manipulating Police against us’<\/strong>
\nMeanwhile, the Convener of the Let My Vote Count group, David Asante, has accused the Police of allowing themselves to be manipulated by political actors, to frustrate their attempts to picket at the offices of the Electoral Commission (EC).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe beauty of democracy is at play here. We are not really disturbed; when the court ruled in our favour, we said democracy had won. So if the same has been done for the Police, democracy has still won.”<\/p>\n

He lamented that “what we rather find shocking is the fact that, in the ruling of Justice Esandoh who sat on the matter earlier in the day, he was emphatic that it was inappropriate for the Police to on the blind side of the demonstrators, secure an exparte injunction; and he insisted that it will not be fair and proper for his court again to go ahead and issue such an injunction if the Police comes back through the back door.”<\/p>\n

“It is interesting to realize that it is not the same judge who gave the new restraining order. What is the Police being manipulated to achieve? It is a big question Ghanaians are interested.\u201d<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

By: Godwin A. Allotey\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n

Follow @AlloteyGodwin<\/a>
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