Asiedu Nketia hails police action against LMVC protesters

General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) says the demonstration by pressure group Let My Vote Count Alliance demanding a new voters’ register which later ended up violently should not be blamed on the police.

According to Johnson Asiedu Nketia, the peaceful march which later turned violent and ended abruptly was needless since the Electoral Commission (EC) is already engaging political parties and other stakeholders after the NPP forwarded a petition to it.

“All political parties are expected to present their proposals to the EC and we in the NDC have done that, and we did not hold a demonstration. The NPP, PPP and others have also submitted their proposals together with all other parties and so what was the need for the protest?

Photographs and videos taken on the day of the demonstration showed vivid pictures of police brutality against unarmed demonstrators

The police claim the demonstrators pelted them with stones and decided to change the route of the demonstration agreed earlier.

But that claim has been dismissed by a large section of the populace, with some insisting the police reaction was not proportionate to the alleged crimes said to have been committed by the demonstrators.

But the NDC chief scribe, popularly known as ‘General Mosquito’ has praised the police for their action. Speaking on an Accra-based radio station on Tuesday, Mr Nketiah lauded the police for their actions last Wednesday.

“I really support the police for their actions that day. The protestors were not beaten because they were exercising their rights, but because they defied the rules of the police, and that is their punishment,” he said.

Meanwhile, a victim of alleged police brutality in the chaotic demonstration has lost one of his eyes.

Justice Adzakuma, 36, was hit by a stray rubber bullet said to have been fired by the police in an attempt to control the crowd.