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Convenor for FixtheCountry campaigners, Oliver Barker-Vormawor has said the police took advantage of their planned “dramatic visual protest” and led the PR on its intended June 4 march.

“The dramatic visual protest didn’t create the kind of impact we hoped,” Oliver Barker-Vormawor admitted in a Facebook post on Thursday.

He explained: "I was hoping that our democracy will be visually confronted with the urgency of getting accountability for violence."

He admitted the flaws in connection with that move and asked Ghanaians to forgive him for this as he take steps to right his wrongs.

“I hope our missteps are forgiven when they happen. And we take the moment to learn and grow from them.

“I’ve never done anything that wasn’t driven by love for the humanity of our citizens. I take the fall for this one. It’s on me.”

Background

A group of Ghanaians seeking to demonstrate for three days beginning June 4 has written to the Accra Regional Police Command to allow them to demonstrate with their own private security.

The individuals including broadcasters Captain Smart and Okatakyie Afrifa are also asking the Police to allow demonstrators to carry their own registered weapons to the march to protect themselves.

“We will bring our own security company to provide protection to demonstrators. All weapons held by demonstrators or by the contracted security personnel will be for personal protection only; and all weapons will be duly permitted in accordance with the Arms and Ammunitions Act, 1972 (NRCD 9) e) Proposed route and destination: We expect that the Demonstrators will gather at Circle.

“The procession will move from Circle to the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, where the Protestors will make a demand a slot on GTV to speak directly to the Nation and layout our grievances, in accordance with Article 55(11), which guarantees the fair opportunity to Ghanaians to present their programmes to the public through equal access to the state-owned media,” the statement said.

The group mentioned the reported sale of the Achimota forest, and the Agyapa deal among others as reasons for their planned protest.

“We believe that the conditions that precipitated the June 4th overthrow of the military Government are not only present today but have actually gotten worse. Today, the 4th Republic has been taken over by thieves. Rather than prevent the plunder of the treasure through the law, they themselves plunder the state and use the law and police violence to shield themselves from accountability.

“There is no rot in every institution, and those who speak up against wrong are now victimized and abused. French Economist, Journalist, and Statesman Frederic Bastiat- once wrote that “Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. Sometimes the law places the whole apparatus of judges, police, prisons, and soldiers at the service of the plunderers, and treats the victim – when he defends himself – as a criminal.”