In 2016, there was a pressure group that held the erstwhile Mahama administration to strict account, but since the New Patriotic Party (NPP) led government took office in 2017, the group, known as OccupyGhana, has gone dead silent.
This has led to many questioning the genuineness of the group with some tagging them as NPP fanatics.
However, two leading members of the OccupyGhana group, Ace Ankomah and Sydney Casely-Hayford, have given insight into how the group operates.
According to Mr Ace Ankomah, OccupyGhana, as a group, was formed to engage in what he calls “battle for the hearts and minds” and not to stage demonstrations.
Speaking to Bernard Avle on the “Point Blank” on Citi TV last Monday Mr Ankomah made the ensuing statements:
“OccupyGhana did not exist on July 1, 2014. We attended Occupy Flagstaff House as individuals. We started meeting afterwards. The group, OccupyGhana, was formed in September. The people who should take the credit are not being credited with it.
“This is a group of young men and women who were called concerned citizens for responsible governance. I was there for not more than 30 minutes. After that I sat in my car and went away. I’m awfully flattered that my 15 seconds cameo is what brought a government down, when at the time they laughed at us”‘
“OccupyGhana has never staged a demonstration, we have never done that as a group because when we were founded, we said our battle is for the hearts and minds. We decided that our fights will be for the hearts and minds and that we will stage an intellectual battle in an arena where you can’t physically beat us”.
“And so, since we were founded, we have simply issued statements. The fact that it has been hyperbolised means that it has had more effect than they will admit. The group itself has never been on the streets, that is a point”.
“There was an Occupy Flagstaff House event, we admit that we all met at that event and afterwards we started our operations. We can’t take credit for it, we won’t take any credit for the “#RedMonday, we did not organise it; all CSOs except OccupyGhana. We were drawn in at a later stage but we are happy it happened. People receive us differently”
For his part, Sydney Csely-Hayford explained that the group had a small task force who were responsible for their operations.
“when we decided to do OccupyGhana, we had a small task force and they were given the opportunity to draft where we were going, as a result of that, some people fell out, the end argument was that we will bring about more permanent change if we go to court and sort a matter out of in court, and the court agrees with what we are doing, it is actually promulgated or acted upon and it made sense to most of us
“Before we issue a statement, we do in-depth research that is why so far, nobody has been able to sue us for defamation, anyone who has a problem with us and thinks that we should do more, please do it
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