Court Scuttles Manya Krobo Residents Planned Demo Against EC

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Demo
Demo

Following the threat by the chiefs and people of the Manya Krobo Traditional area to demonstrate against the Electoral Commission over what they describe as a breach of the Constitution, a Koforidua High Court has barred them from demonstrating or embarking on any such act between the 1 and 15th of March.
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Below is their press statement and attached court document:

COURT ORDERS KROBO CHIEFS, YOUTH TO POSTPONE DEMONSTRATION AGAINST EC

? But Chiefs & people say agitation continues unabated
Monday March 2, 2015, Odumase-Krobo: A Koforidua High Court has barred the Chiefs and people of Manya Krobo from going on their planned demonstration on Tuesday March 3, 2015 against the Electoral Commission.
The restraining order which was served on three respondents including Nene Asada Ahor I, Chief of Akuse and PRO of the Manya Krobo Traditional Council with suit number D16/117/2015 and signed byPhilip Yekple, Registrar of the Courthas prohibited the demonstration or any such activity in the Krobo area from 1stto 15th March, 2015. No reason has however been given by the Police or the Court for the restraining order.
The Chiefs and people were gearing up to pour on the street to, in their words, defend the Constitution of the Republic and draw public and national attention to the institutional impunity on the part of the EC which was bending the laws toillegally conduct the assembly elections in the Natriku electoral area at Akuse under the Shai Osudoku District of the Greater Accra Region instead of the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality of the Eastern Region. This according to the people was a clear breach of the 1992 Constitution and a disregard for the Supreme Court?s judgment on the issue.
Until the service of the Restraining Order by the Court on Saturday February 28, 2015, which the people consider a repressive tactic by the State Apparatus to silence them and to deny them their rights to demonstrate, tension was mounting in the area with the various chiefs rallying their subjects to join the youth in Tuesday?s street protest.
Spokesperson for KlomaGbi, Hilary Saki Kodji said ?We find it strange why we should be prevented by the Police without justification from exercising our constitutional rights. All the same, we will respect the Courtbecause we are law-abiding; we will push the date for the demonstration further but the agitation continues aggressively and we will be bold in doing this until someone gives us a listening ear or the issue is logically resolved?.

BACKGROUND
Prior to the nationwide assembly elections in 2010, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development initiated an electoral area re-demarcation exercise that ended up changing the boundaries of the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality.
In the said exercise, seven electoral areas originally part of the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality of the Eastern Region namely Zongo New Town, Akutue, Osorkutu, Bungalow, Natriku,Amedeka and Salon – were illegally aligned to the Shai Osudoku District in the Greater Accra Region, creating a constitutional issue which went to the Supreme Court.
The Legislative Instrument (LI 1983) initiated by the Ministry and passed by Parliament to give legal backing to the re-demarcation exercise was declared null and void by a unanimous decision of a nine member panel of the Supreme Court on June 13, 2012.
In a letter from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development dated March 14, 2013 and signed by the then Minister, Hon. AkwasiOppong-Fosu, clearance was sought for the EC to hold the assembly election which was suspended in 2010. The letter specifically mentioned the 7 electoral areas that form the Akuse Township including Natriku.
The EC however held the elections but excluded Natriku. Presently the EC is bent on conducting the assembly elections at Natriku but under the Shai Osudoku District instead of Lower Manya, an act that runs contrary to the provisions in Article 5 of the Constitution and the 2012 judgment of the Supreme Court.
The chiefs and people are therefore out there to protest the breach of the constitution and the disregard for the authority and rulings of the Supreme Court, since appeals and petitions to the authorities are yielding no result.

COURT'S RESTRAINING ORDER
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