By Benjamin A. Commey
Accra, Nov 05, GNA — Hundreds of Ghanaians, on Saturday, took to the streets in the capital, Accra, to register their displeasure over current economic hardship in the country.
The protesters, clad in red and black, marched through some principal streets demanding the immediate resignation of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Vice President Mahamadu Bawumia.
The over three hours protest commenced from the Kwame Nkrumah Circle through the 28th February Road to the Liberia Road and ended at the Independence Square.
The protesters carried placards with various inscriptions such as, “resign or be impeached, Sika mp3 mismanagement, Electronic Transfer Levy Act, 2022 (Act 1075) is a killer law, new constitution for a new generation. ”
The demonstration, dubbed: “Kume Preko”, was led by Martin Kpebu, a private legal practitioner.
Addressing the protesters at the Independence Square, Mr Kpebu, said the protest was necessary to indicate to the Government that all was not well.
He said the prevailing economic hardship was unprecedented, attributing it largely to the excessive borrowing on the part of the Government.
He, therefore, called for the President and his Vice, as well as the Finance Minister, to as a matter of urgency, resign.
Prices of general goods and services, including fuel, have seen an astronomical rise over the last couple of months.
Currently, a litre of petrol is selling at GH¢17, while diesel is selling at GH¢23.49 at the pumps.
Transport fares have also risen significantly in the last couple of days with commercial transport operators attributing the situation to the continuous hikes in fuel prices at the pumps.
Mr Kpebu said should the leadership fail to heed to their resignation call, they would petition Parliament to impeach the President.
“We are calling on President Akufo-Addo, Vice President Bawumia and Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to resign immediately or latest by Wednesday.
“Should they fail to listen to us and resign, we will do a number of demonstrations. And then apart form that, we will be petitioning Parliament to impeach the President, pursuant to Article 69 of the Constitution,” he stressed.
While commending protesters for a ensuring an incident-free protest, Mr Kpebu praised the police for exhibiting a high sense of professionalism.
Mr Oliver Barker-Vormawor, Converner, “Fix the Country Movement”, said the current economic crisis was bigger than the COVID-19 pandemic and must not be underestimated.
He said: “One of the things we have said from the very beginning is that we must be very careful of superficial twists to the current situation. We are in a deep economic and system crisis, is bigger than the pandemic and the responses we devise to this must not only be superficial.”
“We have said from the very beginning that problems that we are faced today and where we are now is as a result of political class. There is a gap between the political class and the governed. They do not listen, they are not held to any account and we have always said that we should structurally reform this country, we must have a conversation about our Constitution. That conversation cannot be deferred,” he added.
Nii Ayi Opare, Spokesperson, Economic Fighters League, said Ghana was in economic distress, adding that the current hardship could be likened to a life prison sentence in hard labour.
He said: “The minimum wage in Ghana today is GH¢13.75, which is less than one dollar, which means about 30 million people are living under the poverty line. The cost of living is unbearable and the hardship of Ghanaians today can be likened to a life sentence in hard labour.”
GNA