Pressure group, Arise Ghana has made some requests from Parliament after their two day demonstration which ended on Wednesday June 29.
In a petition they presented to Parliament, the group said “We demand an immediate withdrawal of E.I 144 and an end to the land grabbing of the Achimota Forest Reserve lands. We want to use this medium to caution President Akufo-Addo and his land grabbers to stay their hands off the Achimota Forest lands. We demand from Parliament which represents the collective aspirations of the people to institute a bi-partisan probe into the matters relating to the sale of lands in the Achimota Forest immediately. This probe should be transparent and all persons, be they past or present government officials, civil or public servants, and all whose hands are soiled by this shameless grabbing of Achimota Forest lands should be named, shamed and the stolen lands retrieved for the State.
“We demand an immediate and total cancelation of the Agyapa Royalties deal as same is not in the national interest. We are unable to sit aloof and allow a few individuals in government to appropriate our mineral royalties for themselves and their families.
“We demand an immediate reduction in fuel prices through the scrapping of crippling fuel taxes such as the sanitation levy (“borla tax”) of 10 pesewas on every liter of diesel and petrol. We believe that this if done, will provide some respite to the suffering drivers and lessen the burden of cost of transportation on Ghanaians as a whole.
“Additionally, we demand the immediate repeal of the obnoxious E-levy Act which is nothing but an insensitive attempt to rob the meager resources of the citizenry by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government.
We demand that in the wake of heightened youth unemployment, the Ministers responsible for Finance and Employment should take practical and pragmatic steps to expand the public space for more Ghanaian youth to be employed. Sir, we further demand a transparent, uninhibited and unimpeded inquiry into the Covid-19 expenditure by government following what was presented to the Parliament of Ghana.”
The group demonstrated against what they believe is the worsening economic conditions.
“There is no doubt in the minds of any Ghanaian the worsening conditions in which they live today. As we speak, the nation is saddled with huge debts taking our debt burden above 80% of GDP.
“Prices of goods and services are skyrocketing making the living conditions and the purchasing power of the ordinary man weaker every passing day. Inflation remains on the upward trend and currently above 27%. The cost of fuel for transport services have gone up leading to increased transport fares imposed on the ordinary Ghanaian in recent times. And you are rightly aware, Rt. Hon. Speaker, that the cost of fuel has a cascading effect on every sector of the economy,” they said.
“The Cedi continues to depreciate contributing to a rising public debt portfolio as well as driving the cost of inflation. Rt. Hon. Speaker, this economic situation which is our worst performance in the history of this Fourth Republic has worsened our credit worthiness and dampened investor confidence in our economy leading to our worst ever downgrades by reputable sovereign credit rating Agencies such as Moody’s and Fitch. Simply put, our beloved Ghana is broke and this is a direct product of the bad leadership, insensitivity, misplaced proprieties and gross economic mismanagement of the present Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration.
“Draconian taxes. Rt. Hon. Speaker, while wages of the Ghanaian worker remain static with almost all labor unions up in arms over poor wages in the wake of worsening economic hardships, the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government continues to impose killer and draconian taxes on the already burdened taxpayer. The recent passage of the obnoxious E-levy by Parliament and its subsequent implementation by government remains yet another slap in the face of the already suffering Ghanaian people. Never in the history of our country has a government behaved so obstinately in imposing a draconian tax measure on its citizens, despite loud public outcry. Unfortunately, Rt. Hon, Speaker, government’s subsequent use of judicial shenanigans in an attempt to defend the illegal imposition of this E-levy remains yet another clear demonstration of how desperate and callous the government has been.”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana