#OccupyBoG Demonstration: NDC MPs file affidavit to oppose police injunction against protest routes
#OccupyBoG Demonstration: NDC MPs file affidavit to oppose police injunction against protest routes | The Big Stories
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Transcript
00:00 All right, so welcome back to the AM Show.
00:03 Let's talk about the minorities protest.
00:08 They occupy BOG demonstration
00:10 that is facing some challenges
00:12 because the police disagrees with them
00:17 over the routes that they want to choose
00:20 to do this demonstration.
00:22 We've been joined on the line
00:24 by the MP for Boko Central, Mahama Yairga,
00:27 who is part of the minority to help us out with,
00:31 we know that today they will be in court.
00:33 Where are they?
00:35 Good morning to you, sir, and thanks for your time.
00:38 - Good morning.
00:39 - So we know that you are in court today
00:41 to challenge, you know, together police
00:44 to agree with you on the routes that you've chosen.
00:47 At this juncture, where really are we
00:52 in terms of this case?
00:55 - The police filed an application
00:58 and then attach an affidavit.
01:00 And their main argument is that
01:03 there is terrorism in Burkina Faso
01:05 and there is terrorism in Niger
01:06 and there is terrorism in Mali, et cetera.
01:09 There is a coup in Niger and Mali.
01:13 I mean, basically just citing, you know,
01:16 very implausible grounds on which the court should
01:22 not allow us to carry out a protest march
01:25 here in Accra.
01:26 I gained that we want to pass through Makonda
01:29 and Makonda will be congested, et cetera.
01:32 We filed a response to their application
01:36 which we pointed out to the court that
01:39 we are going to march through the same Makonda
01:41 without any military coup or any terrorist attacks.
01:45 We don't see why in the past we could march
01:48 through the same route.
01:49 And today, with what we believe is an enhanced capacity
01:54 of the police service, they are able to police protests.
01:59 They argue that the central bank is a security zone
02:03 and we made it known to the court that
02:05 we don't know any law that says that
02:07 central bank building is a security zone.
02:09 We have marched through the central bank building
02:12 area before and nothing has happened.
02:14 And going to the central bank is actually the message.
02:17 So if you refuse to allow us through the central bank,
02:20 then the message that we are dissatisfied
02:23 with the performance of the leadership
02:24 of the central bank will be lost.
02:27 So you will be effectively denied our right
02:30 under the Constitution to express ourselves.
02:33 So those are the two contending arguments
02:37 before the court today.
02:40 And so it is for the court to make a decision
02:43 whether the police's contention that
02:47 essential services will be disrupted.
02:50 There's no essential service along the route
02:52 that we are marching.
02:53 There's no hospital that we are going to go
02:55 and prevent from functioning and therefore
02:57 it will say that, or there's no ECG office
03:00 that we are going to surround and then we'll say that,
03:02 oh, in the process, you know, electricity or water
03:06 or even a fire service, whether you say that
03:09 in a state of emergency, the fire service
03:11 will not be able to function.
03:12 Those are the essential services.
03:13 And then also public order.
03:17 There's no threat to peace and security around the area
03:21 because nobody has issued a statement saying that
03:23 they disagree with the process
03:25 and they'll come and disrupt it and et cetera.
03:27 So basically they have no ground.
03:28 They clearly don't want a demonstration
03:33 and that is all that we can see.
03:36 And we believe that the court will also see through this
03:39 and uphold our right to express ourselves
03:43 by way of a demonstration.
03:45 - So is your expectation that this case
03:47 will be called this morning?
03:50 - Yes, the case should be called this morning.
03:53 If it's not called this morning, then, you know,
03:55 for us, it works for us because then there's no injunction
03:59 restraining us until tomorrow we go on our march.
04:02 - So if the court still says, well, I'm going to fall
04:09 in line with what the police is saying
04:12 and we'll make sure that you are prevented
04:14 from embarking on your demonstration
04:16 through the route you've chosen,
04:18 what will be the next line of action?
04:21 - I don't believe the court will say so.
04:23 If anything at all,
04:25 if anything at all,
04:29 maybe the court will rather promote some more dialogue
04:33 between the police and then the parliamentary group
04:38 in terms of the route,
04:42 but the court cannot stand in the way of a democratic right
04:45 to express ourselves.
04:50 And I don't believe that the court should be doing that.
04:53 And it will be a very bad, dangerous precedent
04:56 because we have marched through the same route in the past.
05:00 And so you have to give a very, very compelling reason
05:04 why it's been, Ghanaian citizens cannot march
05:07 on the same route.
05:08 And citing the coup in Niger and the coup in Burkina Faso
05:13 and the coup in Mani is preposterous.
05:16 And I don't think that the court will condone that.
05:18 It's a very, very strong reason why citizens could march
05:23 to Bumakola in the past and today they cannot march
05:27 to Bumakola.
05:28 - Well, but I mean, isn't the police justified
05:34 to use what's happening in the sub-region to say,
05:37 because of that, we cannot guarantee
05:40 that if we should allow this march to go on,
05:43 all will go according to plan.
05:46 - Well, they must convince the court
05:49 that somebody is planning a coup in Ghana
05:51 and that if it's a demonstration expressing revulsion
05:55 against the central bank,
05:58 that will not be the best opportunity to strike.
06:02 They have to show the court.
06:03 And if you know that somebody is planning a coup,
06:05 why are you not going to go and arrest that person?
06:09 And if you say that you don't have capacity
06:12 to police Ghanaian citizens to carry out their demonstration,
06:16 you have to convince the court
06:17 that you are a security apparatus
06:20 that can send an army to Niger
06:23 where a certain military joined up.
06:26 And yet you cannot provide very simple policing
06:30 for people to march to central bank
06:32 and then come back to their village destination.
06:34 I mean, it would be very, very, very preposterous
06:38 to have the court accept the very lame
06:43 and weak arguments that I've seen the police have launched
06:48 for us not to be able to march through routes
06:49 that we have marched in the past.
06:52 It would be difficult.
06:53 I don't see how a court will accept that.
06:56 If there's no evidence that we have been marching
06:58 along those routes, then you will say this the first time.
07:02 But we have marched along those routes.
07:04 The police have policed us along the same routes.
07:08 We have marched peacefully, no reported incidents.
07:11 So if anything at all, our police have the capacity
07:15 and experience of doing the same job.
07:18 So there's no reason why today they will say
07:20 that they cannot do a job that they have been doing
07:22 very well in the past.
07:24 What has happened?
07:25 Has the police suddenly become so inefficient
07:27 and incompetent and incapable?
07:29 Those are issues that I believe
07:31 they cannot convince the court about.
07:34 So any court that accepts these lame arguments,
07:37 clearly would be condoning a flagrant violation
07:41 of constitutional rights.
07:43 And indeed, if any court is concerned
07:46 about a military coup, the court knows
07:48 that the way to prevent a military coup
07:50 is to allow people to express themselves freely
07:53 so that the ills of society and malgovernance
07:56 will be corrected so that the military
07:58 will have no excuse to jump into the fray.
08:02 But if you clearly see cases of flagrant violations
08:07 where a contract that is supposed to be $81 million
08:10 suddenly jumps up to $222 million,
08:12 citizens are marching in protest,
08:14 and you, the court, say, "No, no, no,
08:15 you can't even march to protest
08:17 against something like that."
08:18 You would rather believe it's the soldiers
08:20 and the police that are coming.
08:21 And the past, when soldiers are coming,
08:23 the judges haven't been left out anyway.
08:25 So I believe that the judges are very interested
08:28 in making sure that democratic rights are upheld
08:33 and that public accountability is maintained.
08:38 - You said you don't anticipate the courts
08:45 to listen or to be in tandem with the police.
08:49 What if the police is able to convince the court,
08:52 the court agrees, what would you do?
08:54 - Well, let's hear the courts before we can,
09:00 I don't speak for the entire group
09:02 on what we will do because that would be undemocratic.
09:05 - Okay.
09:06 - So let's wait and hear what the courts say.
09:07 In the court, you know, contrary to what we all expect,
09:11 you know, the side to side with the police
09:13 against citizens' expression of democratic freedom,
09:16 we would immediately convene as a group,
09:20 take a decision, and let the public know.
09:22 - I mean, refresh our memory on your route again.
09:28 Maybe someone is just joining, yeah.
09:30 - We, we, we, we, tomorrow plan to start at 10 o'clock
09:35 and we will converge in front of Parliament House,
09:38 the front of the Parliament House.
09:40 We'll march by the Oindijan Stadium,
09:44 pass the Minister of Finance,
09:47 and then on the Kipo Road,
09:49 then pass through Rollins Park,
09:53 and then pass through Opera Square,
09:55 and then end at the frontage of the Bank of Ghana
10:00 head office building.
10:02 Basically, it's a very short route,
10:04 and we believe that there will be minimal,
10:06 if we start at 10 o'clock, at 10 o'clock, you know,
10:10 we will be, we'll pass the Rollins Park
10:15 and Makola Market even before 11,
10:19 and by that time, Makola Market will not be as busy
10:23 as the police are pretending that it will be.
10:26 And, you know, even in the past where we have passed
10:28 through Makola Market around one o'clock, you know,
10:31 still the market has functioned effectively
10:34 without us having any problem.
10:36 So the arguments are just, as you can see,
10:38 they just don't want us to demonstrate.
10:40 And, and, and, and even if they were content
10:44 about Makola Market, there are alternative routes
10:47 to the central bank that they could have proposed.
10:51 But they are telling us that we should march
10:52 from Parliament House to Independence Square.
10:56 What does Independence Square done to us
10:58 that we are marching there?
10:59 We have a problem with the central bank,
11:01 we are telling them to march to Independence Square.
11:03 I mean, that's preposterous.
11:04 We have marched to the Flagstaff House,
11:06 and nothing has happened.
11:07 That is the seat of government.
11:09 That is where you can make a case before any court
11:12 that is a security door.
11:13 And yet, you know, we marched there,
11:16 and people have come out to receive petitions.
11:19 So how is it that we can march to the central bank,
11:22 to the Flagstaff House, and yet we cannot march
11:27 to the Bank of Ghana head office?
11:32 The money is not kept at the Bank of Ghana head office.
11:34 It's just an administrative building.
11:37 They don't keep anything there.
11:38 They have the warehouse on the printed roof.
11:41 That's where the printed money and everything is kept.
11:44 That's not where we are marching.
11:46 So clearly, there's really no threat at all
11:50 to national security.
11:51 We should march to the frontage of the Bank of Ghana.
11:56 But already, there are people who carry out
11:59 trading and other activities
12:01 in front of the Bank of Ghana head office.
12:03 You don't see that as a threat to security
12:06 or a violation of the security rule.
12:09 So why would people march in there?
12:12 Conceal the violations of the security rule.
12:15 - All right, so for all intent and purposes,
12:18 you disagree with the police
12:19 on how they are going about this particular matter?
12:21 - Absolutely, absolutely.
12:23 And unless the police IGP is confirming
12:28 what COP Alex is saying,
12:30 that under his administration,
12:32 this free service has become very complicated.
12:35 I don't see how it is that we can.
12:38 - All right, grateful to you, Muhammad Yariga, for your time.
12:44 And I wish you all the best for today.
12:46 He is the MP for Boko Central, Muhammad Yariga.
12:53 This is still the AM show.
12:54 We'll be keeping an eye on this particular demonstration
12:58 and especially the case in court
13:00 to determine what the next action will be.
13:05 Now, this case will be called in court today.
13:08 That's the expectation
13:09 because the demonstration is tomorrow.
13:11 So if the case is not called,
13:13 then it means the minority can go ahead
13:16 to organize the demonstration.
13:19 But if it's called,
13:20 whatever happens, we'll bring that to you as well.
13:23 This is still the AM show here on the Joining Channel.
13:27 Let me just remind you
13:28 that we'll be having that interaction
13:30 with the president of the National House of Chiefs,
13:33 Ojibwe, the second.
13:36 He will be joining us here for us to have a chat
13:41 about his traditional area, the Western North region.
13:46 This is a new region that was created
13:48 as part of the new regions that were created,
13:51 I think, in 2018, 2019.
13:53 So we would want to find out
13:55 what has been the economic development
13:58 in that part of the country.
13:59 And also delving to Chief Tansi related matters,
14:03 how he's, together with his house,
14:07 the National House of Chiefs,
14:08 are handling the many plethora of Chief Tansi issues
14:13 that engulf us in this country.
14:18 So stay with us.
14:19 We'll be having that chat here.
14:21 I mean, there are a lot of issues happening,
14:26 so we'll be delving deeper into that with him.
14:29 One other issue that is of concern to all of us
14:33 has been the strike by the Colleges of Education,
14:38 Teachers Association of Ghana,
14:41 members of their association, CTAG.
14:43 They've been on strike for some weeks now.
14:45 They are calling for the government
14:50 to honor some agreements that they've entered into
14:53 in the past, which has not been respected.
15:00 So we'll be delving into that one.
15:03 Now we've been joined on the line by Ofosu Asamwa,
15:08 who is, I think, what, Primpag.
15:11 He's the Executive Secretary
15:15 for the National Labor Commission.
15:17 Chief, good morning, and thanks for your time.
15:19 Chief Ofosu Asamwa, good morning to you,
15:25 and thanks for joining us.
15:27 - Yes, good morning.
15:28 - Okay.
15:29 - Thank you for your time.
15:31 - So what's the latest on the CTAG strike?
15:34 - Well, they appeared before the commission last week,
15:38 and with their petition against their employer
15:44 for the withholding of their salary.
15:46 And the commission directed that the call of the strike,
15:51 which they were still agreeing in the earlier one,
15:54 be directed to, and then after that,
15:57 the commission will hear them.
16:00 - So the commission instructed them to call of the strike?
16:03 - It repeated its earlier directive to call of the strike.
16:09 - And they still not--
16:10 - It's only when the strike was unpaid allowances,
16:15 which has now been paid.
16:17 - Okay.
16:18 - It's been paid into their account,
16:19 so there was no need to be on strike,
16:21 and they are still on strike.
16:24 - So if that's the case, what will you be doing then?
16:28 - Having not called of the strike,
16:35 the commission will be instructed
16:37 to go to the CTAG directive.
16:40 - Well, if they are still on strike,
16:46 you just mentioned that their allowances,
16:50 because of which they went on strike, have been paid,
16:52 but was their strike just about allowances,
16:56 or there were more?
16:57 - It was on the allowances, the unpaid allowances.
17:01 That's what it was.
17:02 They were at the state of being certified.
17:05 What was outstanding was the allowances,
17:07 which they wanted to use their account.
17:09 It has filled their account now,
17:11 so I don't see reason why they are still on strike.
17:15 But they are.
17:16 - Does it include, does the payment include
17:21 the payment of their August salaries,
17:25 because we heard that they weren't going to be paid?
17:27 - That I will not say, I'm not a beneficiary,
17:30 but what is before the commission,
17:32 before we went on strike, was the payment of allowances.
17:36 - Okay.
17:37 - And that's now being paid.
17:39 - But if that's the case--
17:41 - If they want to engage on strike,
17:43 or no payment of salaries, that's a different matter.
17:47 That's there.
17:50 - But if that's the case, then the strike is illegal.
17:54 - There's no reason at all for you to take the legality.
18:00 You want something, and you don't give it to me,
18:02 I'll go on strike.
18:03 The thing is, I'm not giving it to you.
18:05 Why are you on strike?
18:07 - When was this payment effected?
18:11 - It was effected at the end of their August salary,
18:14 because this was coming, their August salary, yes.
18:18 - And you are confident the monies have hit the account?
18:23 - I'm sure you can just call them,
18:24 but it's actually the account.
18:27 They have attested to it, yes.
18:29 - Okay.
18:29 So, if they do not return to the classroom
18:33 by close of today, by close of week,
18:36 any action the labor commission will be taking?
18:38 - That's what I said, that the commission will,
18:41 by Wednesday, they have it going,
18:42 the commission will know what to do.
18:45 They have an application of their employer.
18:49 They are conformist, whether they are on strike or not.
18:52 Nobody can tell us.
18:53 So, it is for the principle of the colleges,
18:59 of the Ghana Special Education Commission,
19:01 or the military, even the Armada military,
19:05 to tell us that, yes, they are still on strike.
19:09 So, the commission can take their next step.
19:12 - Oh, okay, okay.
19:14 So, I mean, if Prinkov, or the ministry does not come to you,
19:19 then there's little they can do.
19:22 - That is our way of knowing.
19:26 Sitting there as a committee is like a judge in the court.
19:29 If there's no complaint, how will the judge know?
19:32 The high court judge will give an order
19:34 that the teacher should go to the classroom.
19:37 It's only when the headmaster or the proprietor,
19:40 or whoever is supervising,
19:41 they come to tell you that we have no complaint.
19:44 That is when you can do something or say something.
19:47 - Okay.
19:48 - Or get to know, yeah.
19:50 - Okay.
19:51 Let's see how it goes.
19:52 We'll get in touch with them to understand.
19:53 - If they come to complain, yes,
19:55 that's the directive as we have done a follow-up,
19:59 and the teachers are not in the classroom,
20:01 then based upon that, we can do something.
20:04 - Okay.
20:05 - We can take that path.
20:06 - Okay, all right.
20:09 - I'm grateful to you, Mr. Osafoswa-Samuelsa,
20:10 for joining us here this morning.
20:12 He's Executive Secretary for the National Labor Commission.
20:18 According to him, the allowances based on which
20:22 CTAG declared a strike action have been paid,
20:27 and so they expect the teachers to be in the classroom.
20:30 But if they are not in the classroom,
20:31 it would demand or it would take the report by Prinkov
20:38 or the Ministry of Education to alert them to it,
20:40 and then they can take the next action.
20:42 So where you are, are the teacher training,
20:47 I mean, the teachers in the College of Education
20:50 back in the classroom?
20:51 If they are not, let's hear from you.
20:54 You can send us, go onto our Facebook page
20:57 and leave it there.
20:58 We'll take it, and then we'll do follow-ups.
21:00 This is still the AM Show.
21:02 We'll take a quick break.
21:03 We'll be back.
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