NPP demonstrates against energy crisis

Accra, Feb. 18, GNA - The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) staged a huge demonstration on Wednesday against the ongoing energy crisis and what they deem to be insensitivity and corruption on the part of the Government.

The demonstration was on the theme: 'Won Gbo' which literally means 'we are dying' in Ga.

It was patronised by leading members of the NPP including the Flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo; Running Mate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia; National Chairman, Paul Afoko; National Youth Organiser, Sammy Awuku with support from Alan Kyeremanteng.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo, who joined the demonstrators at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, called on them to be peaceful and to be disciplined in the protest.

The demonstration, which began at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, drew hundreds of NPP supporters and other disgruntled citizens from Accra and beyond.

Their numbers increased when they began a high-decibel march on the Kwame Nkrumah Avenue, through the Central Business District to the Hearts Park near the Arts Centre in Accra.

Dressed in black and red, the demonstrators, made up of the young and the old, including the disabled, carried placards with inscriptions such as 'Wow, what a John,' 'Odum Kanea President,' 'Boko Mahama' and 'Businesses are collapsing'.

They were hailed on their way by school children of the Rev. Ernest Bruce Memorial Methodist Church school complex and the Mantse Tackie Liberty Avenue cluster of schools, both in Adabraka.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency, Nana Yaw Sakyi, a cement block maker, said: 'We need 'dum sor centres and not Ebola centres because it is this energy crisis that is killing us.'

He appealed to journalists to give more prominence to the energy crisis to help solve it.

The demonstration was guarded by over 100 policemen and the Ghana Red Cross Society.

During the march, a section of the demonstrators briefly besieged a supposed office of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), but were deterred by the presence of the stern-looking policemen.

The protesters also defied an attempt by the police to prevent the march from going through the Farisco Traffic Light and into Makola.

After the march, however, Greater Accra Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Christian Tetteh Yohunu, said the police were satisfied with the conduct of the demonstrators.

A driver at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle lorry station, who identified himself as Wiafe, said though he had witnessed a number of demonstrations by the NPP, this was by far the largest that he had seen.

GNA