I am bemused that a country that should have been priding itself on immense successes when it comes to democracy has now almost become a jungle where even the state through its influence on state institutions does not mind tacitly attacking people’s rights in clear breach of the law.
I have read and have been following a very bizarre request by some miscreants in the NPP who want to go and demonstrate at the office of Former President and Incoming President John Dramani Mahama.
When I first read about it I could tell this can only come from miscreants who are mostly ill-advised but coming from a party that has touted itself over the years as the party of scholars and professionals I thought the NPP party would advise these miscreants so that they would stop their delusional behavior.
Unfortunately, it appears not just the NPP party but the NPP government through the police has sponsored this outrageous behavior that they call a demonstration.
I would for that matter provide the advice they should have been given by the so-called scholars and professionals of the NPP since it seems to me they don’t have such astute scholars and professionals who know what they are about let alone know the advice they can give to their miscreant members.
What we all need to know is that in every country there are private rights and public rights.
Dealing with public rights take a different approach than it is when it comes to dealing with private rights.
One of the major facets of private rights is privacy. The right not to interfere with the privacy of people in order not to disturb their peace.
Every human being including even mad people have their right to peace and to live their lives without unnecessary interference in same.
What it means is that the law recognizes the private spaces of people and unless the law allows it, no one and I mean no one can enter the private spaces of people to go disturb their peace without their consent.
The law therefore allows individuals to take steps to defend their privacy in the event of an unwarranted intrusion.
What is important to note is that mostly when people decide to disturb your peace through the invasion of your privacy they don’t normally inform you or the victim is not aware of such a plan let alone hear the intruder announce it to the whole world like in this instance and this is why the notice to the whole world that these miscreants in the NPP would be embarking on a demonstration at the office of Ex-President and Incoming President John Dramani Mahama makes it outrageous, so bizarre and very sinister.
Indeed, what is even baffling is for the police to permit such a bizarre request when it ought to know that as an institution with the sole duty to protect life and property, they cannot under any circumstances permit this apparent intent to breach the private right of a citizen.
If this is not checked it would become more of a State-sponsored terrorism against a citizen.
It is unbelievable that in a democracy that is more than 30 years old, a group of people in the party of the ruling government would write to the police supervised by the ruling government that they want to go and break the private rights of not only a citizen but a former President of the country and currently the flag bearer of the largest opposition party and the police see nothing wrong with that?
To the extent that the police fail/refuse to immediately warn such people of the exact nature of what they intend to do, the fact that this is an intended breach of a private right, as well as the fact that this conduct would most definitely lead to a breach of the peace which should be grounds for the police to immediately intervene, gives room to suspect that the state or the NPP party has a hand in this scandalous venture.
It is therefore not surprising that the police is pretending to be ignorant of the consequences of this impending breach and have approved the route to be used by these miscreants.
Needless to say this is more akin to a government of criminals who use the power of the state to wreak havoc on innocent citizens.
However, it must be noted that it is the law that a person does not have to wait for his assailant to throw the first blow and that under the appropriate circumstances, he would be required to use a preemptive strike to prevent his attacker from attacking him.
In the common law case of BECKFORD V. THE QUEEN (1988), it was stated thus:
“A man about to be attacked does not have to wait for his assailant to strike the first blow or fire the first shot, circumstances may justify a preemptive strike.”
This law makes room to even kill your attacker if that’s what it takes to save your life.
This law extends even further to include circumstances in which your close relative such as wife, husband, child, parent, etc comes under attack. The law allows you to take steps to prevent the attack by equally attacking the assailant.
This position of the law applies equally to the defence of property for which reason when a person who has no such right has made it known to the whole world that he is coming to invade your privacy and your property, the law allows you to also prepare to defend yourself including even being the first to pull the trigger.
In my position as a lawyer, I would advise His Excellency Former President John Dramani Mahama to prepare adequately to defend himself, his family and his properties from this state-sponsored open attack on himself, his privacy, his family and his properties.
It appears that this government wants to rule with mayhem and everyone would have to prepare to use the same means to survive.
Sometimes I just wonder what the NPP wants to achieve by some of these mayhem ploys they undertake. If it is intended to subdue the NDC then they have failed because the NDC is born out of a revolution and no one can quench the fire that burns in us.
We can never be scared, afraid, intimidated or subdued.
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