Kwasi Pratt Leads Massive Demo

Field Commander of the Committee for Joint Action (CJA), Kwesi Pratt will this afternoon lead a small army of protesters on a smokescreen demonstration under the guise of advocating for the release of the incarcerated former boss of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Tsatsu Tsikata.

Daily Guide gathered that today’s event is the first in a series of malice-inclined and political demonstrations to be organized by the CJA with the silent orchestration of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) from now to December, just before the elections. The hidden agenda is to deliberately provoke police and security officers, who would be guarding such demonstrations, in an attempt to get them to halt the protesters as well as whip up public sentiment against the government of the day.

Reports say from today to next Thursday, August 14, the organizers would be at their wits end making politically inclined provocative statements just to find enough cause to make their followers take the law into their hands. The on-going voter registration exercise, the proposed sale of 70 percent of Government’s share in Ghana Telecom (GT) to Vodafone and the incarceration of Mr. Tsikata, are said to be the issues which would be used to inflame passions and unleash violence.

Today’s protesters would include political activists, lawyers, and members of faith-based movements. They are to execute the operation at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra and surrounding areas from 2:00pm to sunset. Mr. Pratt, Managing Editor of The Insight and his army, would among other things, be telling passers-by that Justice Mrs. Henrietta Abban, the Appeal Court Judge sitting as additional Fast Track High Court Judge, who pronounced judgment on Mr. Tsikata, was politically prejudiced against him during the trial and that she had a personal dislike for the convicted NDC man.

Reports say an emissary had been sent to the NDC flagbearer, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, to get him to personally join the Tuesday march of the CJA as they embark on a mass demonstration to deliver a petition to Parliament. The petition is to get Parliament to halt the proposed sale of 70 percent of Government’s share in GT to Vodafone. Mr. Pratt had bragged that Tuesday’s demonstration would attract several thousands of Ghanaians who would pour out on the streets to register their lack of support for the GT sale.

Though police had given full clearance to the CJA to embark on Tuesday’s demonstration, there is suspicion that the protesters would defy orders that only their representatives would be allowed to enter the forecourt of Parliament to present the petition. Daily Guide gathered that Dr. David Percy, a CJA big-wig whose doctorate is in pig nutrition, would be presenting the petition to Parliament if the police succeed in holding back the other protesters. It was also gathered that Ralph Asiama, formerly of the Ghanaian Voice and defunct Ghanaian Post and Ghanaian Democrat had been tasked to get the NDC flagbearer on the streets on Tuesday.

It would be recalled that during a similar CJA demonstration, the police violently clashed with the protesters at the Christiansburg Castle junction at the tail end of the demonstration. The said clash occurred when the demonstrators disobeyed orders to stop hurling stones at the police until eventually one of the stones landed on the head of then Deputy Inspector General of Police, Dr. K. K. Marfo and caused a deep bloody cut. The stone throwing continued until police were compelled to disperse the demonstrators by spraying tear-gas and hot water. Some of the demonstrators had earlier on openly rained invectives and curses on the police, heckled motorists, blocked traffic and burnt car tyres in the middle of the streets.