Former President John Mahama has criticised what he calls the forceful handling of protesters by the Ghana Police Service during the recent three-day demonstration organised by Democracy Hub.
According to Mr Mahama, the country must strike a balance between maintaining law and order and protecting the rights and freedoms of its citizens.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer for the 2024 election described remanding of the protesters as "high-handedness."
High-handedness!
— John Dramani Mahama (@JDMahama) September 26, 2024
We must balance our need to maintain law and order with protecting the rights and freedoms of our citizens.
Remanding Democracy Hub demonstrators for 2 weeks is high-handed and an abuse of their rights.
The youth of Ghana have a right to engage in…
"Remanding Democracy Hub demonstrators for two weeks is high-handed and an abuse of their rights," he wrote on Thursday, September 26.
Mr Mahama stated that Ghanaian youth have the right to protest in defense of their future, particularly regarding critical issues like environmental destruction due to illegal mining.
"Draconian judicial decisions such as this won't stop them from speaking out. The authorities must request the judge to review the remand decision and grant them bail immediately," the former president added.
His comments follow the Accra Circuit Court's decision on Tuesday, September 24, to remand 28 protesters from the Democracy Hub into police custody, with an additional 11 protesters remanded into prison custody.
The demonstrators were charged with conspiracy to commit a crime, namely unlawful assembly.
On Wednesday, 11 more protesters were remanded into police custody on charges of conspiracy to commit a crime, unlawful assembly, causing unlawful damage, offensive conduct conducive to the breach of peace, assault on a public officer, and additional charges.
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