The Minority Caucus in Parliament yesterday refused to present its petition to the Director of Security at the Bank of Ghana after walking from the Obra Spot through to Accra demand the immediate resignation of the central bank’s governor and his deputies.
Wing Commander Kwame Asare Boateng, head of security at the Central Bank, had gone out to receive the Minority’s petition on behalf of Governor, Ernest Addison, when the Minority leader Cassiel Ato Forson refused and described the Bank’s decision as disrespectful.
Wing Commander Kwame Asare Boateng and a host of the Bank’s leadership, told the protesters that Governor Addison was in a meeting with a team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and was therefore unavailable to receive the petition.
“We were informed that you would come and present the petition, but as we speak, the governor is meeting the IMF team,” Wing Commander Kwame Asare Boateng told the protesters.
But the Minority leader described the decision as disrespectful and vowed to return later when the governor was available to receive the petition in person. The leaders of the Occupy BoG protest refused to present the petition due to the governor’s absence.
Ato Forson said “It is very disrespectful not to receive the petition himself. Not even the deputy is here, and we never said we were going to present our petition to security, and we would not give you the petition.”
“Now that he has decided to disrespect us, we will not present our petition, and so we will go and come back again. Until we see him, this is just the beginning,” he added.
The National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia who also addressed the demonstrators, vowed that they will re-group and present the petition to the Governor in the days ahead.
Hundreds of protesters yesterday morning took to the streets of Accra to protest the economic crisis as a result of what they considered poor fiscal policy by the Bank of Ghana.
Led by the main opposition NDC and the minority in Parliament, the protesters said the action of the governor of the Bank of Ghana Ernest Addison had led to hyperinflation and high cost of living.
The street protest was organised by the NDC caucus in parliament, pressure group Arise Ghana, Justice for Ghana and other groups to demand the resignation of Addison and his deputies.
Speaking to the media, the Minority Leader Cassiel Ato Forson said the purpose of the protest was to express their revulsion against the illegal printing of money for the government, which led to a hyper inflation rate of 54.1% in December 2022.
He noted that the singular act of BoG had negatively impacted livelihoods and businesses and pushed about 850,000 Ghanaians into poverty in 2022 alone.
Dressed in red and black amidst chanting of patriotic songs, protestors carried placards with inscriptions such as “Akufo-Addo is wicked”, “We cannot buy medicine”, and “Corruption is killing us.”
