We'll defy police order - Young Patriots

Spokesperson for pro-NPP group, Richard Nyamah says the Young Patriots will rebel against the Police order seeking to prevent them from staging their demonstration in Accra.

The group is seeking to hit the streets of Accra on Tuesday December 8, to demonstrate against what it described as a stolen verdict of the 2012 elections in support of the NPP’s petition in Court.

But the Greater Accra Regional Police Command and the Young Patriots met on Friday to discuss the routes to be used during the demonstration which ended with the Police calling on the group to suspend the demonstration.

Meanwhile, Mr. Nyamah in an interview on Citi FM on Friday clarified that reasons given so far were not enough to impede their constitutional rights to demonstrate.

“When we met with them, they gave us two reasons why they cannot allow us to demonstrate on the 8th. One is that the date in question was a day that they couldn’t make it because they would have been tired after the 7the January swearing in and all that but we were looking to the Police to have given us a tangible reason why they cannot allow us to do a demonstration that day,” he noted.

He also insisted that the leadership of the group had met the constitutional requirement and therefore the Police have no such power to stop them from demonstrating.

Mr. Nyamah further took issue with the Accra Mayor Mr. Okoe Vanderpuije for suggesting that the group has to secure a permit before converging on Obra Spot to demonstrate.

“Anybody who wants to undertake an activity or function which will call for a congregation of people within the city should first seek approval from the assembly before embarking on any such activity and that those who violate the assembly’s by-laws will be arrested and sanctioned," the mayor is reported to have said.

Mr Nyamah said: “Ghana has moved from those PNDC days, the coup days where the word of the President was the law. The Public Order Act does not under any circumstance require us to take permission or approval from Alfred Okoe Vanderpuye and because of that singular reason, we will be on the streets on Tuesday, January 8, we shall demonstrate just because of that reason.”