CONTRARY TO announcements that former President Jerry John Rawlings and Prof. Evans Atta Mills, flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), were going to lead the Committee For Joint Action (CJA’s) demonstration dubbed, “Ye Wuo”, the two men were nowhere to be found during yesterday’s protest march.
Earlier, Victor Smith and Kwaku Anyidoho, special assistants to Rawlings and Mills respectively, had announced that the two NDC bigwigs would lead the demonstration.
However, the pair abandoned the CJA, leaving the mantle of leadership to Kwesi Pratt Jnr, Bernard Mornah, Victor Smith, Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, Asiedu Nketia, Alhaji Ramadan and Charles Kofi Wayo.
Rawlings’ wife, Nana Konadu; Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, running mate to Prof Mills in the 2004 general elections; and Dr. Tony Aidoo, former Deputy Defence Minister, were also on hand to lend their support.
Mr. Pratt Jnr and his cohorts succeeded in organizing what in their estimation was one of the biggest demonstrations in the country since 2001.
The CJA was demonstrating against what they perceived as mismanagement, full cost recovery, high medical bills, murder of innocent civilians, cocaine trafficking, corruption and outrageous rents.
The rest were killer price of petrol and kerosene, high school fees, arrogance, high utility tariffs, killer transport fares, exorbitant prices and insensitivity.
The demonstrators set out from the Holy Gardens at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle and made their way through the Nkrumah Avenue to Farisco, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Head Office road, National Theatre, the Ministries and finally converged on the Accra Hearts of Oak training ground near the Arts Centre in Accra where they were addressed by leading members of the CJA.
Over 700 police personnel, drawn from the Greater Accra Regional Police Command were on hand to provide security and ensure adherence to the laid-down routes mapped out by the Regional Police Administration in conjunction with the leadership of CJA.
At the helm of affairs were the Regional Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Kwaku Ayensu Opare-Addo; his Second-In-Command, ACP Boateng; Operations Commander Chief, Superintendent Christian Tetteh Yohuno; and other high-ranking officers.
The demonstrators, who carried placards with inscriptions such as ‘Who killed Ya Naa?’, ‘Everywhere suffer, suffer’, ‘Too much Wahala’, and ‘NPP nie, cocaine nie’, peacefully marched through the streets of the capital amidst singing and dancing.
At the Hearts Park, a minute’s silence was observed in honour of the late Danny Ofori-Atta, a leading member of CJA and leader of the Democratic People’s Party (DPP).
The leadership of CJA took turns to address the crowd, praising the Police for doing a good job.
Mr. Pratt Jnr. described the demonstration as the biggest since 2001 and that it should serve as a clear signal to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) that Ghanaians were ready to fight for their rights.
He warned the government not to play any “hanky-panky deal with the 2008 elections” and called on Ghanaians to vote the ruling party out of office.
“We are sending a clear warning to Kufuor and the NPP and other people of Ghana that we are no longer going to tolerate corruption in the country,” Mr. Pratt Jnr warned.
He promised Ghanaians of CJA’s preparedness to fight for equal justice and tolerance irrespective of who is in office.
NDC’s General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu-Nketia debunked assertions that CJA was an NDC appendage and mentioned Pratt Jnr, Mornah, Kofi Wayo and Alhaji Ramadan as people who belonged to different political parties with different ideologies and yet were members of CJA.
He told the crowd that the NDC was not worried about the 17 aspirants vying for the ruling party’s flagbearership, describing them as “thieves fighting one another to elect chief of thieves”.
Mr. Asiedu-Nketia commended the demonstrators for their sense of maturity and discipline.
On his part, Bismarck Nartey, also known as Doku Mallam, Chief Fisherman, complained about the lack of pre-mix fuel for his fisher-folk, while Bernard Mornah, General Secretary of the People’s National Convention (PNC) compared the current cost of items on the market to that of 2000 and said the cost of living was now high.
Alhaji Ramadan, the National Chairman of PNC attacked the government over the poor arrangement of this year’s Hajj and described it as insensitivity at its peak.
Madam Ama Benyiwa-Doe, Dr. Omani Boamah and Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, deputy General Secretary of NDC also addressed the crowd.
Earlier in an interview, the Regional Police Commander, Opare-Addo told DAILY GUIDE that his administration met with the leadership of CJA to strategise and map out the routes for the march.
He described the exercise as very peaceful and maturely coordinated without the slightest need for concern, and stressed that initially, he considered it to be a minor exercise but the size of the crowd proved otherwise.
The Police chief disclosed that his outfit had to marshal resources to mobilize about 700 personnel for the smooth handling of the exercise.
DCOP Opare-Addo, who was carrying out his first major ‘assignment’ since taking over from DCOP Christopher Asiedu-Akrofi (rtd) as the Greater Accra Regional Commander, commended the demonstrators for comporting themselves.
Source: Daily Graphic
