CPP Youth Link Demonstrated against Accra Mayor

Accra , Feb 02, GNA - The Youth Link of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) on Thursday staged a demonstration against the demolition of structures and brutality against residents along the rail way lines in the Accra Central and Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra.

The demonstrators who are requesting the Mayor to resign from his position also called on the President to immediately withdraw the appointment of Mr Alfred Vanderpuije, the city Mayor.

Mr Kadiri Abdul- Rauf, National Youth Organizer of the CPP said, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly's mission statement clearly states that the assembly was poised to raise the standards of living of people in the city especially the poor, vulnerable and the excluded by providing and maintaining basic services and facilities in the areas of health, education, sanitation and other social amenities.

“Yet consistently, it is the poor, vulnerable and the marginalized that have had to bear the brunt of abusive, violent, and brutal regime.”

He said, Mr Vanderpuije had failed on his own promised and does not know his job, adding “the Mayor is following the footsteps of his predecessor in displaying a lack of fresh, innovative and forward-looking ideas in managing the problems within the metropolis.”

Mr Abdul- Rauf said some time in December last year, the Accra Mail, a local newspaper reported that a woman was crushed to death when she run into the path of a passing vehicle while running away from a chasing pack of AMA task force personnel intending to arrest her for selling on the street.

He said the Mayor had misplaced his priority by fighting the poor instead of poverty, fighting sane people instead of sanitation; fighting the exploited instead of exploitation and the constitution instead of corruption.

Mr Abdul -Rauf noted that the Mayor had lost confidence of the significant sectors of Accra, “our call for his resignation follows calls by market women represented by various groups such as Market Women Association of Ghana (MAWAG).

He added the Mayor was an impediment to the cause of justice and that no member of his abusive and oppressive task force had been investigated and punished for excessive use of public force.

“There are hawkers, who are maimed for life because of these thugs, yet no single arrest has been made, no compensation has ever been paid to any victim of his narrow policies, open thievery of his henchmen and barbaric treatment of Ghanaian citizens.”

Mr Abdul – Rauf again noted that the Mayor had breached not only the laws of the Ghana but International protocol on shelter.

He said “As stipulated in the International laws on housing, preferably on the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR) which the Government of Ghana is a party to, the country is obliged to respect and follow a procedure before undertaken any eviction whether occupants of a land have legitimately or illegitimately taken over or trespassed.

Mr Dawuda Yababa a member of the Youth Link said, the present Government led by President John Mills was voted to change the lives of Ghanaians and to manage the affairs of the state but, the administration had turn to brutality and hardships among the citizenry.

He said Mr Vanderpuije was using insensitive laws to eject and deprive people of their livelihood “That is what we are demonstrating against.”