The Editor-in-Chief of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. has opposed the Public Order Act that instructs organizers of a demonstration to notify the Police of their intention not less than 5 days before.
According to the Public Order Act 1994 Act (491), "any person who desires to hold any special event within the meaning of this Act in any public place shall notify the police of his intention not less than 5 days before the date of the special event".
But to Kwesi Pratt, this order is at variance with constitutional provision that gives right to demonstrate.
He stated emphatically during Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" show Tuesday morning that it is a "flagrant violation of the law; flagrant violation of the constitution" for a protester to seek permission from the Police before he or she can undertake his or her intended action.
He argued that any person(s) who desire to demonstrate deserve the spontaneous right to do so saying, "some things can happen in the country that by the 5 days, the tempo would have diminished. People have the right to demonstrate instantly also. So, that "5 days" rule, in terms of implementation, I think it has disturbed the original provisions of the 1992 constitution".
"Those who make peaceful protest impossible make violent ones necessary," he warned.
Mr. Pratt made these assertions in relation to the #OccupyBoG demonstration orchestrated by the Minority in Parliament to picket the Bank of Ghana until the Governor, Dr. Ernest Addison and his deputies resign.
The Minority accuses the Governor and his deputies of financial malfeasance and mismanagment of the Bank of Ghana, therefore calling for their immediate exit from office.
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Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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Uncle Kwesi, you are now an elder citizen of this country because you just celebrated your 70th birth. You are a master of demonstrations in the country for many years. In those times or years that you organized demonstration, it was the same procedure you and colleagues followed by notifying the police 5 days before you demonstrate. What has changed this time? When Prof. Mills, former president constituted the constitutional commission for amendments of the 1992 constitution, you were in this country, why didn't you present your grievances? You are at the tail end of your career as an astute journalist and nationalist, do not let the respect you have carved for all these years fall into the muddy waters.