{"id":384126,"date":"2017-12-18T06:24:54","date_gmt":"2017-12-18T06:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=384126"},"modified":"2017-12-18T06:25:25","modified_gmt":"2017-12-18T06:25:25","slug":"stop-illegal-oppressive-arrests-bright-simons-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/stop-illegal-oppressive-arrests-bright-simons-police\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop illegal, oppressive arrests \u2013 Bright Simons to Police"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ghanaian innovator and researcher with IMANI Africa, Bright Simmons, is challenging the Ghana Police over its suggestion that it must approve all notices of non-commercial events before they can be held.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, that position \u201cis not the law of the land,\u201d as the Police want to impose on citizens.<\/p>\n<p>[contextly_sidebar id=&#8221;3MFoxYl7Pzh59SWfWZSDKuldNTXl6EwO&#8221;]Bright Simons\u2019 comment comes on the back of the arrest of the chairman of the People\u2019s National Convention (PNC), Bernard Mornah on Saturday by the Nima Police, while he rallied some citizens at the Kawukudi Park to embark on a peaceful march.<\/p>\n<p>The about 19 persons, including Bernard Mornah, who were arrested were members of the Ghana-Togo Solidarity Movement whose peaceful march was to draw the attention of local and international authorities to the political crisis in Togo.<\/p>\n<p>They were detained behind the police counter for hours without explanation of their offence.<\/p>\n<p>The Police later argued that it had not approved the movement\u2019s gathering.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_383894\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-383894\" style=\"width: 509px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-383894\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Bernard-Mornah-letter.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"509\" height=\"624\" srcset=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Bernard-Mornah-letter.jpg 509w, https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Bernard-Mornah-letter-245x300.jpg 245w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 509px) 100vw, 509px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-383894\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Copy of the letter pre-informing the police about the march<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>However, Bernard Mornah revealed that the Police had granted them the permission to embark on the peaceful march until they called on him much closer to the event day to cancel it due to operational challenges.<\/p>\n<p>He said he assured the police the peaceful march required very little police presence and that the march could not be postponed because of the resources invested into its preparation.<\/p>\n<p>Bernard Mornah said the police on the event day, arrested them in \u201crambo style\u201d and threw him into a police vehicle \u201clike a piece of charcoal.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_383867\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-383867\" style=\"width: 1080px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-383867\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Mornah.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1080\" height=\"810\" srcset=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Mornah.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Mornah-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Mornah-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Mornah-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-383867\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bernard Mornah arrested<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Bright Simons in a Facebook post on the matter said the police must cease the \u201cillegal, oppressive behavior,\u201d that sees it arrest citizens under such circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>He argued that the Police must seek the necessary parliamentary action on a draft bill from the Interior Ministry to enable it to get the authority to approve notices of events before they are held.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis continued insistence by the Police that they must approve all notices given to them ahead of public, non-commercial, events IS NOT THE LAW OF THE LAND! If they believe they need this law, they should talk to their sector Minister to head to Parliament with the requisite draft bill\u2026.Can they stop this illegal, oppressive, behavior already!\u201d he posted.<\/p>\n<p>Bright Simons insisted that the Police must render an apology to Bernard Mornah and the others who were arrested for abusing their rights.<\/p>\n<p>He said they must also show remorse publicly for their action and cease any investigation into the matter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey should discontinue all ongoing &#8220;investigations&#8221;\/proceedings against the Kawukudi 19, apologise to them for the abuse of their rights, and show contrition publicly!\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-384128\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Benard-Mornah-arrest.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"588\" height=\"267\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the Bernard Mornah has vowed to drag the Police to court for abusing his rights.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What does the Public Order Act say?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Public Order Act 1994 (ACT 491), from where the Police draws its authority in the holding of special of events indicates that, in attempt to stop a special events from occurring either because organizers refuse to comply with a request to postpone or relocate events, \u201cpolice may apply to any judge or a chairman of a Tribunal for an order to prohibit the holding of the special event on the proposed date or at the proposed location.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>By: Jonas Nyabor\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ghanaian innovator and researcher with IMANI Africa, Bright Simmons, is challenging the Ghana Police over its suggestion that it must approve all notices of non-commercial events before they can be held. According to him, that position \u201cis not the law of the land,\u201d as the Police want to impose on citizens. [contextly_sidebar id=&#8221;3MFoxYl7Pzh59SWfWZSDKuldNTXl6EwO&#8221;]Bright Simons\u2019 comment [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,11],"tags":[9126,2172,3,320,519],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Stop illegal, oppressive arrests \u2013 Bright Simons to Police - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/stop-illegal-oppressive-arrests-bright-simons-police\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stop illegal, oppressive arrests \u2013 Bright Simons to Police - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ghanaian innovator and researcher with IMANI Africa, Bright Simmons, is challenging the Ghana Police over its suggestion that it must approve all notices of non-commercial events before they can be held. According to him, that position \u201cis not the law of the land,\u201d as the Police want to impose on citizens. [contextly_sidebar id=&#8221;3MFoxYl7Pzh59SWfWZSDKuldNTXl6EwO&#8221;]Bright Simons\u2019 comment [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/stop-illegal-oppressive-arrests-bright-simons-police\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. 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