Folks I followed some media reportage after todays sitting of the court on the case between the Ghana Police Service and the OccupyBoG protesters, and it’s important to clarify the proceeding due to the wrongful reportage in the media.
The Ghana Police had filed an application on notice seeking to injunct our demonstration and choice of route based on a number of reasons they term as national security concerns.
Now even before the substantive matter could be heard, Counsel for the OccupyBoG protesters Lawyer Edudzi Tamakloe raised a serious preliminary objection.
The basis of the objection was that the application before the Police was defective and same could not be entertained by the Court because it offended the State Proceedings Act, 1998, (Act555).
The State Proceedings Act clearly cites the Attorney General or a person appointed by the Attorney General as the only person who can bring a civil action on behalf of the State and on the basis that Ghana Police Service on the face of their instant application titled Republic v Cassiel Ato Forson and others, unless Counsel for the applicant was the Attorney General or an assign of the Attorney General lacked the capacity to bring the instant action before the Court.
Counsel Edudzi relied on the State Proceedings Act, the case of the Republic v Circuit Court exparte Gifty Oware Aboagye and other authorities to make a firm argument that unless the Attorney General has issued a fiat allowing the Police to bring a civil action on behalf of the State then, the current suit cannot be said to be competently filed and therefore must be rejected by the Court.
He further argued that the Ghana Police Service is a creation of an Act of Parliament and is an agency under the Executive and therefore not an independent state agency and therefore can sue or be sued in its own name, citing the case of Inspector General of Police v. Attorney General he further highlighted the clear distinction between the Police and the AG’s department and that even the powers granted the Police by the AG to prosecute some criminal offenses only ends at the circuit/district Courts and not at the Superior court.
It is on the basis of these solid arguments that the Court requested for a few days to come up with a ruling on the preliminary objection.
Even though the Court did not categorically injunct we the protesters, we decided to cooperate with the Court as law-abiding citizens and postponed our demonstration to Tuesday 12th September 2023, all other details including the route and time for the protest still remains the same.
