Bernard Mornah released; intends to snub ‘disobedient’ police

The National Chairman of the People’s National Convention, Bernard Anbataayela Mornah who was detained for several hours at the Nima Police Station has been released.

He was arrested together with some 19 others who had gathered at the Kawukudi park in Accra Saturday morning to rally support for victims of human rights abuses in neighbouring Togo. The police said their gathering was unlawful and accused them of engaging in acts that could breach Ghana’s peace.

But Bernard Mornah told TV3 News 360 after his release Saturday evening that he satisfied the Public Order Act to assemble at the venue after the police were notified of the said event on December 5. The police had told him and his Ghana-Togo Solidarity Movement, who are planning the event, that it does not have the personnel to protect them so the event should be called off.

They would not listen to the police without an order from the court, Bernard Mornah admitted. True to their words, the organisers assembled Saturday morning with about 300 people around when the police moved in to disperse them and arrest Bernard Mornah and cohort.

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Troubled by the arrest, the PNC chairman said, “the Nima police have been so unprofessional, their action is uncouth”. How did the police manage to marshal enough personnel to round them up when it had claimed there were not enough officers to protect them, he wondered.

Condemning the “Rambo style” arrest, Bernard Mornah observed that it is “an eyesore that we can’t talk about sordid pictures from Togo” when government officials are condemning the atrocities in faraway Myanmar. Mr Mornah who is the convener of the rally said he has lost the motivation to inform the security agency of any event in the future.

“For what the police have done, next time if I have to organise a public manifestation, I may not go and inform or notify the police…because the police itself is disobedient of the law” Early on, the counsel for Mornah, Dr Raymond Atuguba had written to the Officer in Charge of the Nima Police inquiring about the reasons for his client’s arrest.

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The President of Ghana, the Inspector General of Police, Attorney General and the Chief Justice were copied on the letter.

 

Credit:3news/Ghana News