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The Minority in Parliament has rejected claims that the Bank of Ghana (BoG) building is a security installation.
The Minority plans to picket at the central bank on September 5, 2023, to demand the resignation of the Governor of BoG, Dr. Ernest Addison, and his deputies.
However, after a meeting with the police, the Accra Regional Police Command issued a statement expressing discomfort with the routes selected.
According to the police, the routes selected by the minority could endanger public safety and order.
The Police Service has therefore asked the Minority to change the routes and the destination of the picketing in the interest of public order, public safety, and the smooth running of essential services.
In an interview with Nii Lartei Lartey on Eyewitness News, the MP for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, described the police’s claims as “lies.”
He pointed out that “first and foremost, it is a big lie that the central bank building is a security installation. There has to be a law that defines it as a security installation. There is no such law. I do not recall any single law that defines the central bank building as a security installation. It is a big lie. Anyone who tells you it is a security installation is lying to you.”
He continued, “We are not asking to go into the central bank, not even the premises of the central bank. Our letter is specific. We are marching to the frontage of the central bank. We expect the Governor and his deputies to come out and receive our petition. So, once the central bank is not a security installation, we can march there because we have a democratic right to march there.”
Mahama Ayariga also criticized the police for taking a “lazy approach” and called on them to “rise up to the task ahead of them.”
“We are going to the central bank to hold the Governor accountable. The police should also be held accountable, in terms of the standard of responsibilities of the police service. They are to make sure that when citizens have the right to exercise their democratic rights, they are there to police them to exercise that democratic right. Not to adopt a lazy approach and say that the central bank is a security installation, so you cannot go there. Where else can we go?”
He insisted that they will protest on the routes they have designated, stressing that the police do not have the authority to issue any directives on their routes.
“The police have absolutely no power to give us directives in this regard. They cannot deny us the right to protest along the routes we have. If they do, it has to be a higher authority. It is just an attempt to frustrate the organization, but they will not succeed, because the demonstration will be along that route, and we will get to BoG’s frontage.”
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