Some demonstrators of #FixOurFootBridgesNow Campaign of Adenta in Accra have accused the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo of suppressing their freedom and democratic right to demonstrate.
According to some angry demonstrators who spoke to Awake News said they don’t understand why hundreds of armed Police Personnel [ads1]should be deployed to prevent them from embarking on the demonstrated from Adenta Barrier to Madina as planned.
The protest started around 6am today, November 12, 2018 at the West Africa Senior High School (WASS) junction at Adenta with about 35 people singing, drumming and dancing. The protest nearly came to a standstill when ten Police Toyota Hilux Pickups arrived with hundreds of police personnel almost outnumbering the number of people present.
The Police then engaged the organizers of the demonstration in a prolonged discussion and came to the conclusion that the demonstration must not go beyond Adenta Filling station which is just a 2oo meters from the starting point. The Police sighted security reasons for their decision.
Protesters, however, disagreed and said it is not only Adenta that has the uncompleted footbridges that are causing the car to knock and kill pedestrians and insisted they will match to Madina as planned.
On the root, the Police blocked the road at Adenta SDA Junction (which is about 300 metres from the starting point of the demonstration) preventing the protesters from continuing the protest to Adenta.
As angry as the protesters become accused the police of intimidation while saying the President is using the Police to suppress their rights to demonstrate.
Background:
If a reader can recall, the people of Adenta Municipality have started a campaign #FixOurFootBridgesNow and planned to embark of a Peace Walk today to register their concerns over the uncompleted footbridges on the highway which resulted in the loss of about 195 lives in 2018 alone.
Whiles the campaign was gathering momentum, a fresh fatality occurred. A taxi on Thursday crashed and killed Mariam, a first-year student of West Africa Senior High School.
The killing of student triggered fresh outrage by residents who got angry blocked the road with tyres, scraped fridges and set them ablaze. The billows of smoke clutch the atmosphere making the road with a 100km/hr speed limit unmotorable for over three hours.
Resident chants “No more deaths!”, “No roads”, “fix our footbridges now” among others.
Personnel from the Ghana Police Service had a tough time bringing the situation under control as thousands of angry blocked the road and will not allow the Police Officers the to off the fire they set on the roads. Some throw stones and other objects at the police as the few that were present stood helplessly until they called for reinforcement.
Officers of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) were on the scene to put out the fire while the police are at the scene to control the irate residents but the Fire Officers were initially driving away with stones until about two hours later when the Police were able to put the irate residents under control.
The crowd became massive with violent actions from the irate youth pushing the police to fire tear gas and guns.
A woman and her son were in the process hit by stray bullets. The situation got calm around 6:30pm but the residents vowed to take more actions if their footbridges are not completed immediately.
Source: AwakeNewsOnline.com | Efo Korsi Senyo
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