The Greater Accra regional Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Police Service has disclosed that 26 persons were arrested in connection with Monday morning rioting in different parts of the capital.
Of the 26 currently being held, there are 25 men and a woman.
ASP Afia Tengey who was speaking on Accra-based radio station Asempa FM’s news analysis program, contested claims that the police were overwhelmed by the rioters who were armed with stones and other implements.
She averred that the police contained the rioters to the best of their capability even though they suffered some losses. ‘Some of our cars were damaged, windshields especially were smashed on a number of our police vans because of the stones they hurled at us,’ she added.
She, however, admitted that the disjointed nature of the rioting groups made the initial job of the police difficult as a result of which they called for reinforcement to quell the situation.
She further disclosed that a number of men sustained minor bruises from the impact of the rioter’s attack, and but for the riot gear and other crowd management skills that they employed, the situation could have been far worse.
The riots were occasioned by the displacement of persons after a demolition exercise by the city authorities over the weekend. Roads were blocked and fire lighted in the streets of a popular market in Accra called Agbogboloshie.
Another group of people marched onto the central business district where they massed up in front of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly’s (AMA) offices, others besieged the forecourt of the State House, causing some damage at there.
Even though the rioters are protesting that they were not informed prior to the operation, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly’s public relations officer, Numo Blafo III is on record to say that broad based consultations were held with the leaders before the demolition took place.
Source: GhanaWeb
