The conveners of the demonstration include Oliver Mawuse Barker-Vormawor, Felicity Nelson, Efia Odo, Samuel Alesu-Dordzi, Della Russel Ocloo, Joshua Boye-Doe, Bashoratu Kamal-Muslim, Agyapong Forster, Adatsi Brownson, and Benjamin Darko.
The Greater Accra Regional Police Command stopped the campaigners of the #FixTheCountry protest slated for May 9, 2021.
According to the police, it cannot permit the #FixTheCountry group to embark on their intended demonstration.
The Public Relations Officer of the Greater Accra Regional Police Command, DSP Effia Tenge, said the Public Order Act, which imposes a ban on public gatherings, especially due to the prevalence of the COVID-19 pandemic, restrains the Command from sanctioning the #FixTheCountry protest.
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In an interview on Accra-based Class FM, she said: "The notification to the police to organise a demonstration is provided by the Public Order Act and, so, once we receive a notification from an organiser or a group of people planning on such a demonstration, what we do as a command is to invite them, sit down, we look at the letter, look at the merits of the letter on such a demonstration."
She said: "If there's anything the police needs to take note of and advise the group as such; whether the letter, in a way, endangers public safety; whether the police has the numbers to protect the demonstrating public; we take all these into consideration and then the police decides what action to take based on the discussions between us and the groups who are intending to embark on this demonstration."
But the campaigners in a letter addressed to the Deputy Commissioner of Police of the Accra Regional Police Command, E. A. Sakyi, said: "We acknowledge receipt of your letter purporting to refuse our request to embark on a march and asking us to suspend the event as a result of restrictions imposed by the Imposition of Restrictions (Coronavirus Diseases (COVID-19) Pandemic)."
The letter said the Executive Instrument the Police cited to support their action – (No. 16) Instrument, 2020 (E.I. 395) – "is no longer in force".
"We have examined the above-mentioned Executive Instrument closely and have formed the view that the Instrument which was adopted under the hand of the President in December 2020 is no longer in force," the letter stated.