Members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Northern Region say they will still go ahead with their planned demonstration despite the arrival of President John Mahama for his campaign tour.
President Mahama is expected to begin a four-day campaign in the Northern Region today, August 22, after a ending a three-day tour of the Western Region.
The Northern Region tour will see the president cut sod for the commencement of some projects as well as visit some chiefs in some communities of the region.
Nonetheless, a demonstration by the NPP on August 22, 2016 in Tamale, the Northern Region capital, has been scheduled to further press on government to reduce electricity tariffs by half.
A statement issued and signed by the party’s Regional Secretary Sule Salifu said that government risks incurring their anger if a week after the demonstration it fails to heed to their concerns.
According to the statement, the government of President John Dramani Mahama continues to put the people of the north through the immeasurable hardships.
Speaking on 3FM’s Sunrise on Monday, NPP’s Frederick Tahiru stated that they do not care about the presence of the President and will go ahead with the demonstration.
“We don’t care about the presence of His Excellency because President Kufuor, Rawlings, the late Professor Mills and even John Mahama were all in Accra when demonstrations took place against them.”
According to him, they are all unhappy particularly with the way the President is running the country and that is why they are calling on everyone to join them to demonstrate against the government and the hardships they are going through.
Meanwhile, Mr Tahiru has indicated that they have given the police a notification and signed an undertaking to conduct a peaceful demonstration in the region and is therefore surprised the police are asking them to call off the demonstration.
“We gave them the notification about a week ago and even went further to meet with them personally to sign an undertaking, so why are they turning us down at the eleventh hour?” he asked.
“I can say this is an NDC decision and not a police decision and I’m saying this because of the sudden turnaround but regardless of whatever they do, the demonstration will still go ahead”.
By Nana Afrane Asante|3news.com|Ghana
Twitter: @3Newsgh
