NDC protest nearly resulted in collision course with security personnel

Politics of Monday December 21, 2020

Source: GNA

2020-12-21

Military and police personnel spent a frantic time controlling protesting supporters of the main opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), as they resorted to burning tires in Jubilee Park, Kumasi, on Sunday.

The protesters, dressed in red, had converged on the Park, following a procession through some main streets of the metropolis to protest against the results of the 2020 presidential elections.

They were led by the Ashanti Regional Executives of the party and some leaders, including; Dr. Samuel Sarpong, former regional minister.

As soon as they had converged on the park, some of the protesters began burning tires on the esplanade and in the streets, raising huge clouds of smoke into the air.

This forced the Labor Roundabout-Roman Hill stretch of the highway to be temporarily closed, creating traffic congestion, but a combined police and military team moved quickly to put out the fire.

The action that followed almost sparked a confrontation between the protesters and security personnel, as the latter tried to control the angry protesters.

In the heat of the confusion, the military and riot police had no choice but to use a minimal level of force to intimidate angry supporters and subdue them.

They then restricted the movement of protesters to the inner perimeter of Jubilee Park, thus clearing the way of nuisance, as NDC leaders made their way to the gathering.

Mr. Kwame Zu, Regional Secretary, NDC, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), on the sidelines of the protest, described the action of security personnel as unjustified.

“We have the right as a party to register our dissatisfaction with the presidential results,” he said, saying that summation errors and incorrect percentages with numbers in some of the electoral districts across the country required revision.

“The EC must boldly admit its own errors with the calculations related to the presidential results in order to improve the credibility of the December polls,” he said.

NDC activists in the country had embarked on a series of demonstrations, following the EC declaration of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as president-elect in recent polls.