Brute force will make youth more rebellious – Joseph Akanjolenur Whittal

Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Joseph Akanjolenur Whittal has condemned the use of force by the security to handle protesters in Ghana.

He told Dzifa Bampoh in an interview on the First Take on 3FM Thursday, July 1 that the constitution of Ghana guarantees the right to demonstrate hence, the security must not act in any way to violate this right.

His comments follow the use of live ammunition on protesters who were demanding justice for the death of Ibrahim ‘Kaaka’ Mohammed in Ejura in the Ashanti Region.

Three others lost their lives in the encounter with the security.

Mr. Whittal said “We should always know that there is always a reason behind something happening.

“The youth are on the streets because we have not been able to mobilize jobs for them. They are not able to make a meaningful means of their lives by way of job, security, going to school, among other things.

“It is our responsibility to appreciate their frustration and so when they are frustrated and sending the signals to us in government or in leadership that all is not well, it is not appropriate for us to turn around and to insist that even that right to demonstrate, to let the country know that they are not happy with what is happening, that too is taken away from them.

“So we should as government and as leadership appreciate that the right to protests or to demonstrate and to express our views as youth or even as any other person in Ghana is a fundamental human right and it has to be a leaved experience, it is not in the constitution for fun.

“Being a ‘macho’ and using guns for all forms of arrests and others to quell them is rather going to make them more rebellious.”