A number of Ghanaians on Wednesday hit the streets of Accra to protest against the high cost of living following the recent fuel price hike.
The protest dubbed: “Ahokyere Demo,” was organised by the Alliance For Accountable Governance (AFAG), with support from other political pressure groups such as the Progressive Nationalist Forum and the Coalition of Private Water Services Providers.
The protesters who wore red T-shirts, red arm bands and head bands carried placards with inscriptions such as “Agya Atta adadaa yen”, “Ahokyere double double”, “Atta are ‘u’ really in charge”, “Better Ghana turns bitter Ghana” and “Promise and fail Government”.
Some notable AFAG and New Patriotic Party members who joined the demonstrators included Mr Kwabena Bonfeh a.k.a Kabila, Samuel Awuku, Nii Kwartei Titus-Glover and Abu Ramadan.
The rest were Ms Ursula Owusu, Frances Assiam, Mike Ocquaye Jnr, Anthony Abaayifah Karbo and Mustapha Abdul Hamid.
After waiting for several minutes to gather all the protesters at the Obra spot near the Holy Gardens at Kwame Nkrumah Circle, the demonstrators hit the streets around 09.25 hours marching through Kwame Nkrumah Avenue, Adabraka and turned at the Farisco traffic light to the Trades Union Congress (TUC) traffic light.
At the TUC traffic light, some of the protesters wanted to divert through the Novotel-Kinbu area but were prevented by the Police and had to continue the march to the National Theatre traffic light.
However, at the Ministries traffic light there was confusion as the Police were overwhelmed by the demonstrators who diverted through the Ministries.
This led to skirmishes between some of the protesters and some workers from the Ministry of Health who were making fun of the demonstrators compelling the Police to intervene to save the situation.
When the demonstrators reached the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning they stopped for a while at the main gate and started chanting songs against the government before the Police moved them from the place.
They continued with the march through the 28th February road to the Accra Hearts of Oak Park at the Arts Centre where they were addressed by various speakers.
Mr Abu Ramadan, member of AFAG criticised President Mills for not keeping faith with Ghanaians as he promised during his electioneering campaign.
He said the President Mills led administration had remained insensitive to the suffering masses after imposing unbearable hardships on them through recent hikes in fuel prices and the introduction of high taxes.
“This is a government that promised to deliver heaven on earth to the good people of Ghana while in opposition, but now in government the consensus among the people is that it is rather delivering hell.”
“President Mills is now running away from the details and commitments of his party’s manifesto which Ghanaians have now labelled as the Ma trickie wo manifesto,” he said.
Mr Ramadan said instead of President Mills confessing that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) had failed the people of Ghana and ask for help to salvage the economy, they rather kept on compounding the hardships and resorted to palliatives and blame games.
He said AFAG would continue to expose the antics of the President Mills led government until they kept faith with the suffering masses.
“We will not stop protesting until President Mills deals with the unruly…NDC foot soldiers who have been chasing out Municipal and District Chief Executives from their offices,” he added.