40 Teachers Grabbed

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Wednesday July 13, 2011.
There was heavy police presence at the Teachers Hall area opposite the Ministry of Information where agitating teachers were planning to demonstrate against the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) executives.

The police was determined to prevent the demonstration because an Accra Circuit Court had granted a request by the police to stop the group calling itself Concerned Teachers Association (CCT).

The Circuit Court in Accra presided over by Mr. Eric Kyei Baffuor held in the ex-parte application that the police service did not have enough personnel to ensure the teacher’s safety despite earlier agreement between the police the leadership of the concerned teachers that the demonstration would go ahead as planned.

Unknowing to majority of the teachers about the court’s decision, bus loads of teachers from Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional Capital and other regions stormed Accra to partake in the demonstration but were rounded up by the police at the GNAT Hall and brought to the Greater Regional Command.

When Daily Guide reached the Police Regional Command at about 4:45pm, the teachers most of whom were clad in red bands and holding placards were negotiating with the police for their release.

In the end, the police asked two of the leaders to write their statements after which they were granted self recognizance bail.

A spokesperson for the CCT, Ernest Opoku said their colleagues who were arrested did not know that they were not suppose to converge at the GNAT Hall adding “we were waiting for them at Apollo Theatre only to be told that they had been apprehended by the police.”

He said by the time the police informed them about the court’s order their colleagues were already heading towards the GNAT Hall from Kumasi and there was nothing they could do.

Mr. Opoku promised that the concerned teachers were going to ‘fight’ the court’s decision and make sure pressure is mounted on GNAT Executives including Mrs. Irene Duncan Adanusa, Mr. Paul Apanga and Mr. Awotwi Nkansah to step down because according to him “the three have not protected the interests of teachers.”

Norbert Gbogbotsi, another leader of the concerned teachers said the teachers were demonstrating against the GNAT leadership and not against the implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) as it is being peddled around.

He said apart from mounting pressure on GNAT Executives, the concerned teachers were also asking for a review of the GNAT Constitution.

He said the position by GNAT that some of the members of the concerned teachers have been expelled from the association was untenable because the GNAT Executives did not have the power to determine who becomes a member.

“Can you imagine an employee telling the employer to leave a company? We employed Adanusa and her group therefore they cannot sack us. They can only do so through an extra ordinary congress and so far we have not held such congress,” Mr. Gbogbotsi explained.

Later, Chief Inspector Kwaku Dompreh of the Police Public Affairs Unit of the Greater Accra Regional Command confirmed that two out of a large number of demonstrators were been arrested and granted police enquiry bail.

“We do not have any problem with the teachers as long as they operate within the confines of the law. We were not there to harass them but were there to ensure that there was nothing untoward.”