The youth of Ghana, through the #OccupyJulorbiHouse protest, have taken steps to ensure that justice is served in an alleged assault case against the Inspector General of Police (IGP).
Democracy Hub and 23 others have filed a motion at the Accra High Court to re-admit the case for prosecution.
The case was initially struck out on April 9, 2024, for “want of prosecution.” However, the plaintiffs are now requesting a new date for the case to be heard after the rescheduling of an earlier proposed date.
Timothy Selikem Donkor, one of the attorneys for Democracy Hub, highlighted the court’s failure to communicate a new date for the case to be heard. He explained that it is common practice for parties in a case to be informed of a new hearing date if the initial date was missed due to certain circumstances.
Despite being present in court on April 4, a vacation date for the court, the plaintiffs did not receive any communication regarding the rescheduled hearing. The court clerk later discovered on April 9 that the case had been struck out, a decision that Donkor described as rare and not following due process.
Donkor blamed the court for the oversight and emphasized that it may have been due to incompetence or inadvertence, rather than malicious intent. The #OccupyJulorbiHouse protest was organized to highlight various issues affecting the youth, such as hardship, high cost of living, bad roads, and corruption.
During the three-day protest in September 2023, the protesters alleged that they were brutalized and assaulted by the police. They are seeking damages for the alleged assaults through legal means. The protest gained both local and international attention, with some participants being arrested by the police.
