Mills’ camp: No cheap political points at ‘Yewuo’ demo

Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills, presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress, will be joining Tuesday's demonstration by the Committee for Joint Action.

Mills believes the government has been insensitive to the plight of the ordinary Ghanaian and he is calling on his party followers especially and all who feel the pinch of the biting economic situation to join the demonstration.

The demonstration is to protest general economic hardship, high tariffs, corruption, drugs, unemployment and official impunity, which according to organisers, have engulfed the nation.

The demonstrators are expected to group at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle from where they would march through some principal streets in Accra and end up at the Accra Hearts of Oak training park at the Arts Centre for a rally.

Koku Anyidoho, Communications Director for Prof Mills, says the opposition presidential candidate identifies with the suffering of the larger society and the issues being discussed by the organisers hence his involvement in the demonstration and not because he wants to capitalize on the situation to score cheap political points.

“Professor Mills is joining to just to also add his voice and his presence to the fact that as a country we cannot continue to allow the NPP government to continue to treat us the way they are treating us and turning us into paupers and slaves in our own country.”

Koko Anyidoho agreed with Joy News anchor Akwasi Sarpong, that the government cannot indeed be faulted for its lack of control over crude oil prices on the world market which eventually tends to affect virtually everything, but he said government has control over the tax component in the local price of the commodity and a humane government should be able to make the prices more bearable.

“An NDC government would have looked at the tax component of the pricing policy and make sure that the international crude oil price does not adversely affect the suffering masses. And you talking about utility prices: just as the CJA mentioned that they were going to go on demonstration and got the police permits, we have noticed that there has been some dropping of some percentage increment in utility prices. We know for a fact that the demolition exercise at Weija has come to a standstill. Hawkers who were sacked from the Tema Station have been asked by the NPP Chairman and the General Secretary with the connivance of the AMA boss to return and sell at the place for one month and that after Christmas, the government will review its position. So Akwasi, obviously once pressure is brought to bear on the government it looks like they will begin to listen and that is why Prof Mills is adding his voice and calling on all NDC supporters and well meaning Ghanaians to join the demonstration.”

Koku Anyidoho said the whole idea of governance is not to over burden the people hence Prof. Mills participation in the demonstration to tell Ghanaians that they deserve better.

“In 1998, 1999 when candidate Kufuor at the time was leading the Kumepreko demonstrations which led to the death of four innocent Ghanaians, was it a populist movement? No! certainly at the time he thought that he was leading the demonstration that would draw the attention of supposedly suffering Ghanaians to the supposedly ill-manner in which the NDC government was running the affairs of the state. Today, seven years on you've been given them mandate to rule and all he does is worsen the plight of Ghanaians; pile unnecessary taxes on us. Just tax and spend.”

Meanwhile the Greater Accra Regional Police Commander, DCOP Opare Addo has told Joy News that the police are ready to protect the demonstrators through their protest march.

He told Joy News' Seth Kwame Boateng that a large number of policemen are ready for the exercise and advised that those intenidng to take part in the demonstrations to be law abiding.

He cautioned against persons said to have declared their intentions to arm themselves with registered guns, saying the police would lock up any such persons until after the demonstrations.