AFAG Calls Off Red Revo Demo
Henry Asante with Ohene Djan addressing the press conference yesterday
The pressure group indicated its readiness to hold a three-day protest march dubbed ‘Red Revolution,’ which was scheduled to start today, to back home their demands for the Electoral Commission (EC) to back down on its intention to create 45 new constituencies for the December 7 general elections.
They intended to demonstrate on some streets of Accra and later converge at the headquarters of the EC, located at Ridge, where they were scheduled to stay for the three-day period of the demonstration.
However, at a press conference in Accra yesterday, Deputy Chairman of AFAG Henry Asante expressed disappointment in the sudden decision of the police to call off the demonstration. He cited the inability of the police to provide adequate security for demonstrators, as one of the reasons given by the police regarding why the demonstration could not come off.
“The Police which had earlier agreed to and approved our routes invited the leadership of AFAG to a meeting only to renege the agreement reached earlier,” he noted with surprise.
Apart from that, he indicated that, “To demonstrate their seriousness and unpreparedness to guard and protect demonstrators, the police promised to secure an interim injunction to halt the demonstration if we insisted on using the same routes the police had approved only few days back.” This, he said was “indeed mind boggling.”
The pressure group have thus been compelled by circumstances to postpone the demonstration to a yet to be announced date, whilst still holding discussions with the police.
AFAG said, “We do not at this stage want to postulate that there are some orders from above dictating the turn of events as far as our demonstration is concerned.”
Though they believe the powers that be could have had their way today, Mr. Asante insisted that “someday, the majority of Ghanaians will also have their say.”
In view of the development, coupled with what leadership of AFAG claimed to be their commitment to the tenets of peaceful protests, deputy chairman of the group said, “AFAG, in the interest of public good, is forced to announce the postponement for the second time, an intended demonstration, due to orchestration by the powers that be and ably supported by institutions of state to make room for further engagements.”
He however assured Ghanaians that “AFAG is still resolute and would never be perturbed by the orchestrations, frustrations and threats of our detractors.”