Police Tear-gas Angry Fishermen As They Storm Castle

The Ghana Police Service has fired tear gas and sprayed hot water to break up a large crowd of marine canoe fishermen after they attempted to forcefully enter the Castle and present a petition to the President. The demonstration on Tuesday, started from Mantse Agbonaa through the principal streets of Accra to the Castle Junction where they were stopped by a joint Police-Military team. The police said as part of their duty to maintain law and order they appealed to the demonstrators to allow their executive to present the petition to the President but this fell on deaf ears. Two demonstrators were injured while others ran for their dear lives. About 1,000 fishermen from fishing communities including Chorkor, James Town, La and Nungua all in the Greater Accra Metropolis took part in the event, singing and calling on the President to come to their aid. Some held placards with inscriptions like "Hon Kwesi Ahwoi, please enforce the fisheries regulations to the letter," "President Atta Mills, aka Nana Kwegyir, your people are dying, fulfil your campaign promise," "Our children cannot go to school, because no fish, no money, President Atta Mills, what are you doing about this?" They said some individuals were using illegal fishing methods which should not be encouraged. They also alleged that the Ministry of Food and Agriculture was aware of most of the challenges they faced in the industry but how to implement the measure to stop them was the problem.