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Court restrains CJA from Peoples'
Jubilee March
Accra, March 1, GNA - An Accra Fast Track High Court on
Thursday granted an interim injunction restraining the
Committee for Joint Action (CJA), a political pressure
group, from holding any procession on Independence Day.
The Court ruled that no procession shall be held from March
5-15, but the order could be varied after March 15.
"The CJA or its agents or servants or any other organisation
is hereby restrained from holding any peaceful procession or
otherwise," the Court said.
"It is further ordered that for the avoidance of doubt, it
shall be unlawful for any person or persons acting under the
banner of Committee for Joint Action or any other
organisation to organise and undertake any activities or
procession in celebration of the 50th anniversary from March
5 to 15 without express permission in writing to the Police.
“This court has come to this conclusion cognizant of the
fact that in times necessary the interest of the nation
should override individual rights or parochial interest,"
the court, presided over by Mr Justice P. Baffoe Bonney
ruled.
The CJA last month announced that it would hold a Peoples'
Jubilee Procession on Independence Day in Accra from Kwame
Nkrumah Circle to Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum where it would lay
a wreath.
However, the police said they could not allow the procession
to go ahead since they would be unable to give the
demonstrators protection because of commitments during the
Independence Day celebrations where scores of foreign
delegations were expected.
The police filed an ex-parte motion for an order restraining
the CJA from holding any procession on March 6.
Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mr K. K. Amoah argued at
Thursdays sitting that on February 6, this year the CJA sent
a notification to the Police to hold a process through the
principal streets of Accra to commemorate Ghana's 50th
anniversary on March 6.
According to him, on the said day because a lot of
dignitaries would be present, every policeman had been
assigned special duty and the Police might not be able to
provide security for the procession.
The police, he said, therefore asked the CJA to postpone the
procession but the group declined saying they would go ahead
with procession no matter what.
Mr Amoah said if the organisers went on the said procession,
the mischief in terms of embarrassment to the state and
foreign dignitaries would be unbearable.
When the court pointed out to Mr Amoah that the CJA had said
the procession would be peaceful, he (Mr Amoah) said nobody
ever wrote to the Police that he or she was going to hold a
violent demonstration.
According to him, each time, processions were often declared
peaceful but they turned out to be otherwise.
He pointed out that where the said CJA procession was to
take place and end was not too far from the Independence
Square, where the main Independence event would be held.
Mr Amoah said intelligence reports indicated that other
groups opposed to the procession would confront the CJA and
that was likely to disturb public order.
He therefore prayed the court to restrain them.
The CJA said it wanted to provide "a popular platform for
the masses as an alternative to the essentially elitist
Ghana@50 programme".
It said it wanted to underline the political significance of
Ghana's independence as an important victory in the
worldwide struggle of the ordinary people against elitism.
The CJA said it wanted "to celebrate Kwame Nkrumah, the
pre-eminent strategist and tactician of the struggles
against classical colonialism".
The Tertiary Students Confederacy (TESCON) of the New
Patriotic Party (NPP), a group calling itself the Campaign
for Patriotism (CAP) said they would hold counter
demonstrations.
GNA
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