The high alert prompt in which all agencies of the national security services, including the Police and Military are involved, Inquirers National Security sources say, arises from the Wontumi’s sentencing as convict number one in “the President’s agenda to fight galamsey effectively from top to bottom,” other that what has been bandied about as democracy under attack.

Benard Antwi Boasiako, aka Wontumi, jailed-bird New Patriotic Party (NPP) Ashanti Region National Chairman and businessman owning chains of businesses, was a fortnight ago sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for his role in galamsey activities, according to a ruling by an Accra High Court.

The Inquirer’s sources indicate that state national intelligence agencies have begun monitoring the Ashanti Region for signals on meetings and NPP dens for informal meetings that they believe have “anything to do with unnatural assembly” with intent to organize crowds,

According our source, too, NDC and state intelligence, using moles in the NPP, are putting together day by day intel data to track activities of the NPP that suggest “extralegal crowd and group activities that disrupt” peace and order.

While our sources did not say expressly that they would break into NPP WhatsApp platforms to follow anything that promotes law and order, The Inquirer learnt from other independent sources that breaking into such platforms maybe legal, if such information has tendency to disrupt law and order, as long as that evidence could be proven in court.

Chairman Wontumi and his lawyers have filed an appeal, while the NPP, agitated, see this conviction as a “ploy among several other political cases to decapitate the party and render it incapable of successfully fighting the December 2028 presidential parliamentary elections.”

The justification for the anti-government demonstration is based on their argument that while galamsey as a national sin is despicable and counterproductive as an official economy, clear and strategic methods have not been laid out by the law for punishing suspects and particularly in terms of the harshness meted out in the case of Wontumi.

Even before the nationwide demonstration, dubbed "Democracy Under Attack", scheduled for Thursday, August 6, 2026 commences, the organizers believe the optics preceding the investigation and hasty prosecution of the former Chairman of the NPP in the Ashanti Region “points to a clear agenda on the part of government and its agents in the security services and judiciary to target NPP kingpins ruthlessly in weakening the lawful resolve and duty of the party to contribute to the democratic process by offering alternative governance voice in accordance with law and democratic practice.”

The organizers also believe targeting of Wontumi is a tactical ploy to denude the NPP of human and material resources that the party may need for prosecuting a lawful, vigorous and healthy fight in the oncoming 2028 presidential and parliamentary elections.

Besides that, The Inquirer was told that the NPP strategists and lead planners or conveners of the demo believe the ‘sledge hammer’ sentencing and pre-trial vibes indicate yet another plot to weaken the base of the NPP stronghold which the party expects to rely on to effectively fight the incumbent National Democratic Congress in the forthcoming elections.

Promotional materials released by the party after a press conference organised by Henry Nana Boakye said the protest would commence at 6:00 a.m. from the Supreme Court and end at Jubilee House, in Accra.

Organisers are mobilising supporters under the hashtags #DemocracyUnderAttack, #SaveGhanaNow, and #SayNoToStateCapture.

Backing the planned demonstration, NPP communications team member and spokesperson for former Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Dennis Miracles Aboagye, noted that the protest is in response to what he claims are increasing attempts by the government to silence dissent and weaken democratic institutions.

"There is always the temptation by people in power to suppress the voices and rights of the people. But there is an inherent self-purge with democracy. Try as you may, you can never suppress the will of the people," he wrote in a Facebook post.