-Want To stop A May 9, 2021 protest On May 26, 2021
In an unprecedented desperate move, the Ghana Police Service (GPS) on May 20, 2021, served a writ on convenors of the #FixTheCountry youth movement seeking a restraining order against the groups planned protest on May 9, 2021.
This retrospective court process is arguably the first time in history where a restraining order is being sought in court to prevent a demonstration scheduled some 17 days in the past.
In what can only require a time machine to wind back the clock to May 9, 2021, ACP Benjamin Osei Addae on behalf of the Greater Accra Regional Police Headquarters, filed a suit on May 18, 2021, in the Accra High Court to put a restraining order on the trending youth movement’s plan to stage a street protest on May 9, 2021.
On May 6, 2021, the Regional Police Command had secured a restraining order which would legally elapse in 10 days (by May 16, 2021). In its suit, the police expressed fears that the conveners of the youth movement would proceed to stage the protests after the 10 days elapsed.
“…Intelligence picked up by the Police and the subsequent public comments by the organisers/conveners point to the fact that the organisers intend to proceed with the demonstration after (10) days when in their view, the order would elapse,” the suit stated.
Yet, the writ to restrain the #FixTheCountry Movement was filed on May 20, 2021, and was served to one of the group’s convenors, Oliver Baker Vormawor on May 25, 2021.
This means that if the group had truly planned to stage the demonstration after 10 days of the restraining order which elapsed on May 16, 2021, they would have staged it as the police chase them in the bizarre retrospective actions the Police and the Attorney-General’s Department have been scheming to, at all cost, prevent the group from protesting corruption and mismanagement of Ghana’s resources.
Whatsup New can report that in court today, the Attorney-General and the Police representatives were embarrassed when the trial judge Justice Ruby Aryeetey chided them for the sloppy work they had done in the process to seek a restraining order on the planned protest. The judge slammed them for causing a mess and leaving her [the judge] to bear the backlash in the media and public discourse.
The writ had been served on the group via a Whatsapp number that the Police and the A-G concludes must belong to the conveners of the youth group.
A statement issued by the # FixTheCountry movement today recounts the curious event in court.
“Following the Whatsapp message, and despite the short notice, two of the accidental convenors appeared in Court today May 26, on behalf of FixTheCountry. At the hearing, the Attorney General’s representative admitted that they had failed to properly notify the accidental convenors of #FixTheCountry as required by law. Despite this, the Attorney General’s representative insisted that they be allowed to move the motion to obtain the injunction,” the statement explained.
The court however refused the request and ordered the Ghana Police Service and the Attorney General’s Department to properly follow the court processes to secure their intended injunction on the May 9, protest which has since passed.
It is unclear why the Police and the state are insisting on getting an injunction against the amorphous youth group from staging a protest on May 9, 2021, because the FixTheCountry movement is a spontaneous movement of Ghanaian youth across the country seeking proper management of the economy.
The group does not have any central organising structure, it is a decentralised movement that nobody is liable to, and thus other mushroom cells under the generic auspices of asking policymakers to fix the country can organise their own protests without recourse to the particular attempt to slap a restraining order on a particular section or Ghanaian youths.
Whatsup News can report that The FixTheCountry movement is giving the entire Executive and security agencies in Ghana sleepless nights as they fear the mass anger of Ghanaian youth at the incompetent leadership they have been served with by various political parties could trigger a civil unrest that could be capitalised on by terrorists or military adventurers who may be nursing plans to seize power from the failed civilian authorities.
Insiders say this is one of the main reasons why the state apparatuses are bent on stopping any protest march by the FixTheCountry youth movement.
So far, the Police had squashed two protests scheduled by the group, but the youth have vowed to stages multiple protests in the coming days, using all means, including social media.
According to Oliver Baker Vormawor, Ghana is ready for a culture of sustained protests until the country is truly transformed by its political leadership.