Madina MP recounts why Police wanted him for leading his constituents to protest
The Member of Parliament for the Madina Constituency Hon Francis-Xavier Sosu has recounted the events leading to the protest in his constituency over bad roads.
For him, though the issue of deplorable roads is not a new situation for his constituents, what pushed him to the wall was the fact that they were not feeling the impact of the year of roads as being touted by the Akufo-Addo administration in his constituency and drivers plying that route always go through gruelling experiences leading to constants visit to the mechanic shop.
Mr Sosu’s position and also empathy with the plight of his constituents spurred him on to take the necessary steps to bring the issue to the attention of the government by deploying all the necessary Parliamentary tools at his disposal but they all fell on deaf ears, according to him.
And interestingly as he was fed up with the situation so were his constituents and as he always touched base with his people he picked up intelligence about their impending protest over the roads and being a legal practitioner he saw to it that they went through the appropriate legal process to get permission from Police of which they were given the green light to protest on October 25, 2021. He claimed that was his last resort to get roads in his constituency fixed.
For events that happened on the day of the protest leading to the misunderstanding between him and the Police, he debunked the notion that he led some of the youth in the constituency to block the roads he rather urged them to all walk together to Ayi Mensah where he would engage the media on reasons behind the protest
But when the powers started feeling the impact of the protest that was when the Police were brought in and the Adenta Commander informed him that the Greater Accra Regional Police Commander wanted to see him and when he realized the Police started insisting on the meeting with the Regional Commander he sensed it was a ploy to arrest him.
The legislator blamed the Police for not having emotional intelligence and also not realizing they were dealing with a Member of Parliament.
He indicated he was fortunate enough to be surrounded by the youth of the community during the protest and at that moment sped off in his car from the Police hence them bringing up that story that they were looking for him.
Being quizzed on why he acted that way as a legal practitioner who knows the law, he said he had the right to resist an unlawful arrest.
The human rights lawyer added that “you need to be given the reason why you are being placed under arrest”.
“What they did to me was complete lawlessness and you cannot just arrest a Member of Parliament to do that you need to write to the speaker of parliament before.”
He also cited the Adenta Divisional Commander for contempt of Parliament to come and answer why he wanted to arrest a Member of Parliament.
With regards to the deplorable roads, he said he has decided to push for Parliament to invite the roads minister Mr Amoako Atta to explain to them the criteria used for the selection of the contractor since the one they are having to work on the roads is not a serious one.
Issues from the road protest on Monday, October 25, 2021, brought up the situation between the MP and the Police while at it we would see if this action by the constituents and their legislator will finally bring the contractor back to the site to get the roads fixed.
By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh
