Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, the National Democratic Congress’s (NDC) running mate, has voiced grave concerns on the harsh treatment that peaceful protestors during the most recent three-day demonstration in Accra received.
Alarming stories have surfaced of police mistreatment, arrests, malnutrition, and denial of access to family and legal representation. Following this, an Accra Circuit Court remanded the demonstrators, one of whom was pregnant.
According to Prof. Opoku-Agyemang, the government’s harsh and dictatorial approach begs the issue of how committed it is to stopping illicit mining and the devastation of Ghana’s farmlands, waterbodies, and forests.
She claims that instead of focusing their crackdown on the demonstrators, the authorities should be fighting real illicit mining and its negative impacts on waterbodies, human health, destroyed cocoa crops, and 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 stated.
Professor Opoku-Agyemang begs the government to stop restricting Ghanaians’ ability to protest, given that such rights are essential to human dignity.
“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”.
Source: newsthemegh.com