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The People’s National Convention said it was disheartened that Ghana’s first President Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s birthday celebration on Thursday was marred by attempted demonstration and arrests.

About 50 people were arrested by the police for going ahead with the planned demonstration despite being warned not to do so by the police.

A statement issued and signed by its General Secretary, Janet Asana Nabla, said Nkrumah would have been upset if he was alive that instead of celebrating him, the day was poisoned with “negativity of the demonstration.”

The PNC maintained that it was not only demonstrations that people could use to register their grievances, particularly on a day when the man being celebrated believed in unity, rule of law and togetherness.

Lectures/Symposiums

“The demonstrators could have used lectures and symposiums to send their grievances across since; they could not obtain police consent.”

“More to the point, Ghana is in a volatile situation in the West African sub-region which has been plagued with coups d’état, a situation in which the demonstrators are fully aware,” the statement said.

The statement said the PNC was aware that citizens have a basic human right to demonstrate whenever they deem fit, but the law also requires that they first acquire permission from the police.

“Despite the fact that we condemn the abuse, we will caution demonstrators in the future to request police permission before holding a protest,” the statement added.

It said the PNC would not permit people or organisations that have never cast a ballot or supported the Nkrumah/Limann legacy to take advantage of the Day by acting in defiance of the law.