Two supporters of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom’s political grouping, were yesterday arrested and detained at the Kaneshie Police Station.
The two were part of a number of activists of the newly-formed PPP who congregated at the Mallam end of the road, ahead of yesterday’s commissioning of the Tetteh Quarshie/Mallam Millennium Challenge Account-sponsored road project, to protest against what they claimed was a denial of the role played by their leader in accessing the US facility to undertake the project.
They assembled under the Mallam overpass early in the morning to commence the demonstration and defied the order by a detachment of policemen which was drafted to the scene.
The police ordered them to leave the spot in five minutes but when they failed to do so, the two were arrested and whisked away.
A DAILY GUIDE correspondent who captured the scuffle between the picketers and the police had her camera seized by security personnel on the scene.
In contrast to a previous incident in which photojournalist Gifty Lawson’s camera was seized at the High Court, this reporter had only the images erased from the camera’s memory card and the gadget returned to her without any assault.
Prior to the arrest of the two supporters, a group calling itself ‘the Concerned Youth of Ghana’ (CYG), said to be sympathetic to the cause of Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, in the morning clashed with members of the ruling NDC at the Mallam end of N1 of the Highway.
The CYG, before the clash, demanded that the highway be named after Dr Ndoum, the onetime Public Sector Minister in the erstwhile Kufuor government who engineered the process that led to the country accessing the $547 million, part of which has been used to construct the road.
The spokesperson of the group, Alista Nelson, told DAILY GUIDE that the group was not happy with the actions of the NDC because the ruling NDC had hoisted its party flags and posted ‘Better Ghana Agenda’ banners all over the place, ostensibly to credit President Mills’ administration for the completion of the road.
The group, as early as 7am, lined up on the Mallam end of the highway and held various placards.
They also chanted war songs to express their displeasure against the NDC.
It almost turned bloody when CYG members clashed with NDC supporters who claimed the group did not have the right to condemn the ruling party or place any banner under the Mallam overpass.
With the intervention of the police, the NDC supporters left the scene but placed another banner with the inscription ‘Believe in the president because he would do it’, whilst the PPP’s banner also had the caption; ‘This High Way was constructed under the Millennium Challenge Account’.
Some of the placards the PPP supporters wielded had inscriptions such as ‘This High Way Was An Initiative Of Papa Kwesi Nduom’ and ‘NDC Very Selfish’.
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