The Inspector General of Police, Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, has told officers deployed to provide security for the Arise Ghana demonstration to treat the protesters with respect and dignity.

“We should continue to remember that those demonstrators are human beings like us; those demonstrators are Ghanaians like us; they are our brothers and sisters.

“Therefore, we should treat them with all the respect, the civility and dignity that each and every human being deserves. In effect, we should treat them the way we would have loved to be treated if we were on the other side,” he told a parade of Police officers ahead of the protest on Tuesday.

He told the officers to help protestors who may even need help in carrying out the demonstration.

“If it is you or your effort that is going to take for somebody to continue to live to accomplish his or her God-given destiny, please do that and do that joyously; do that with love; do that with a sense of humility and humanity, and at the end of the day, we win the hearts and minds of the demonstrators.”

The Ghana Police Service is leading a responsible policing order by deploying for the first time two mobile Police hospital units to assist demonstrators or officers who might need medical attention during the protest.

“We want to show the world that our country, our democracy is growing from strength to strength and this is the finest opportunity to demonstrate that and we cannot miss this opportunity,” Dr Dampare added.

Targets

The IGP also set a target for the Police as the protests begin. The plan, he says, should deliver the following end product.

“One, the demonstrators themselves and leadership will be so happy with the police that they will say thank you to the Police.

“Two, the rest of the people of Ghana will also be so glad in terms of the Police conducts itself and in terms of the way the demonstrators have behaved such that we can be proud of ourselves as a country and three, the rest of the world will continue to see us as a beacon of hope in the sub-region and beyond when it comes to democracy.

Legal tussle

The Police was in court to challenge the proposed time and routes for the two-day protests in Accra beginning Tuesday, June 28 as the demonstrators seek to protest the current economic hardships.

The High Court ruled that the demonstration should take place between 8 am and 4 pm on the route proposed by the Police instead of running the demonstration into the night.

The protesters are challenging this and have planned to start the demonstrations at midday instead of the 8 am proposed by the Court. 

Below are more photos from the demonstration: