Nkrumah Day not for protests – PNC

The People’s National Congress has said it is "disheartened" that the Nkrumah Memorial Day that fell on Thursday, 21 September 2023, was "marred with a demonstration despite the fact that the proponents of the demonstration were warned not to do so by the police".

In a statement signed by General Secretary Janet Nabla, the party said: "Nkrumah was upset because, rather than honouring his legacy through retrospection, the day was poisoned with negativity of the demonstration".

The PNC maintains that "it is not only demonstrations that people can use to register their grievances particularly on a day when the man being celebrated believed in unity, rule of law and togetherness".

The demonstrators, the PNC noted, "could have used lectures and symposiums to send their grievances across, since they could not obtain police consent rather than engaging in illegalities on this historic Day".

More to the point, the party said "Ghana is in a volatile situation in the West African sub region, which has been plagued with coup d’états, a situation in which the demonstrators are fully aware of".

The PNC said it is aware that citizens have a basic human right to demonstrate whenever they deem fit, "but the law also requires that they first acquire permission from the police".

It noted that "despite the fact that we condemn the abuse, we will caution demonstrators in the future to request police permission before holding a protest".

"The PNC would not permit people or organisations that have never cast a ballot or supported the Nkrumah/Limann legacy to take advantage of his Day by acting in defiance of the law".