The running mate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, has expressed serious concerns about the high-handed treatment meted out to peaceful protesters of the recent three-day demonstration in Accra.
The reports of manhandling, arrests, starvation, denial of access to family and legal counsel by the police as well as the subsequent remand of the protesters, including a pregnant lady, by an Accra Circuit Court are alarming.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said the response of the authorities is brutal and high-handed raises questions about the government’s commitment to its so called fight against illegal mining and the destruction of Ghana’s waterbodies, forest and farmlands.
She says she expects the authorities to re-direct their clampdown on the protesters toward a genuine fight against illegal mining and its harmful effects on waterbodies, the health of the people, destruction of cocoa farms and the implications for food security.
“It is incongurous that those actively behind illegal mining are freely walking about and smiling all the way to the bank while protesters who are concerned about the harmful impact of illegal mining are rather being suppressed” she said.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang urges the government to desist from suppressing the right of Ghanaians to protest, especially as protests are fundamental to human rights.
“These feudal, authoritarian and early century reactions by the government to a peaceful protest have no place in a 21st century democracy. The government must therefore immediately end the persecution of the protesters and unconditionally release those in custody.”
“The government should be taking a cue from the NDC’s pledge to properly train illegal miners and give them expert mining advisory services, including attaching mining engineers to their operations, to ensure that they mine responsibly and without adverse impact on waterbodies, forest reserve and the environment”.
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