COVID-19 Lockdown: NGOs Ask Gov’t to Call Security Agencies to Order

National Coordinator of the World Evangelical Alliance Business Coalition Ghana, Raphael Godlove Ahenu

Accra, Ghana, April 1, 2020//-Nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) in Ghana have asked the government to call to order security men who are brutalizing citizens under the 14 days partial lockown declared by the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to contain the spread of COVID-19.

According to the NGOs, “COVID-19 has not taken away the fundamental human rights of vulnerable citizens so their rights should be respected as such”.

The NGOs made the call after monitoring and assessing the two days of the 14 days partial lockown underway in the Accra Metropolis, Tema, Kasoa and the Greater Kumasi.

The five NGOs namely- Global Coalition Against Infectious Diseases, Global Media Foundation, World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Business Coalition Ghana, Indigenous Women Empowerment Network and Citizen Watch Ghana, therefore urged government to recall back all those security saw in the various videos brutalizing vulnerable citizens and punish them accordingly.

At a press conference in Accra today, the spokesperson for the NGOs, who is also national coordinator of the World Evangelical Alliance Business Coalition Ghana, Raphael Godlove Ahenu noted the security should think about the situation of the vulnerable in their attempt in enforcing government directive with human face.

“We don’t want to believe that the videos going around since Monday on social media about security brutalizing citizens in Accra, Kasoa, Kumasi and Tema are true and we therefore condemned these actions by the security agencies”.

Mr. Ahenu also condemned statement made by the General Officer Commanding (GOC), Southern Command of the Ghana Armed Forces, Brigadier General Abraham Yeboah Nsiah on citiNews denying claims that soldiers deployed to assist in enforcing the lockdown of Accra, Kasoa, Kumasi and Tema have been brutalizing some civilians.

He said instead of calling on the men to order, Brigadier General Yeboah Nsiah is rather defending the security agencies and therefore urged the Minister of Defence to investigate those in order to bring the offenders to book.

Mr Ahenu also called on the citizens to obey the directives of the President on the lockdown even though there are no measures take care of the most vulnerable.

Ghana has so far recorded 195 confirmed cases of COVD-19, 3 recoveries, 31 discharges and five deaths.

African Eye Report

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