The Ranking Member of the Defence and Interior Committee in Parliament, James Agalga has appealed to Ghanaians within the lockdown zones to be law-abiding to avoid clashes with the security agencies.
Footages circulating on social media showed cases of police and military brutalities against citizens on the first day of the lockdown in Accra and Kumasi.
Security forces were seen punishing residents of the two cities who failed to adhere to the lockdown directive by the President.
Meanwhile, security analyst, Adam Bonaa has described the situation as “disgraceful, shameful and should not be happening especially under a democratic dispensation like ours”.
Speaking in an interview on Tuesday, Mr Agalga who is also a former Deputy Minister for The Interior said his appeal is not to find an excuse for the excesses, but it was important for the citizenry to remain law-abiding.
He said, “My appeal is that the populace should be law-abiding in these times. We know the lockdown definitely is going to cause a lot of discomforts, but it is for our own good.
If the citizenry is law-abiding, the security agencies will also not have the excuse to be excessive in the way and manner in which they enforce the law in this trying moment.”
He noted: “That is not to find an excuse for any excesses that they may have committed in the course of the enforcement of the terms of the lockdown by the security agencies.
But it is important that the citizenry are also law-abiding in this very crucial and trying moment that we all find ourselves in.”
Ghana has recorded 152 confirmed cases of Coronavirus with five (5) fatalities as of Monday, March 30,2020. The first confirmed case was recorded on March 13, 2020.
President Akufo-Addo on Friday, March 27, 2020, announced partial lockdown of the national capital – Accra and parts of Ashanti and Eastern regions as an enhanced measure to prevent increasing community spread after the country closed its borders -land, sea and air space.
In a related event, the Deputy Minority leader, James Klutse Avedzi has asked President Akufo-Addo to rethink his decision to donate his three months’ salary for the COVID-19 Fund.
According to him, funds to fight the virus is needed now and not in three months time as the gesture by the president may have suggested.
“Hello Mr President, Nana Akufo-Addo, you are donating three months of your future salary starting from April to June to fight Covid 19.
The money is needed now to buy PPEs for our people. By the time your donation arrives, our people will all be infected. Are you aware of that?” he wrote on Twitter.
President Akufo-Addo on Friday night during a national broadcast established a fund to help the fight against coronavirus.
The fund which has Board of Trustees would be chaired by a former Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo.
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