First Lady not interested in pursuing UGMC placard holding protestor case – Aide

The First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo will not pursue any case against the student of the University of Ghana who tried to disrupt her speech with a placard on Wednesday.

The press secretary told Accra-based Citi FM that “The First Lady is not interested in the matter. She doesn’t find anything wrong with it. She even told the police to let him go.”

Reginald Sekyi-Brown was detained by the police after he stood too close to the First Lady who was delivering a speech at a sod-cutting ceremony for the construction of a pediatric intensive care unit at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.

He was carrying a placard which read ‘Open UGMC Now’.

This campaign has been going on for some time now.

Reginald Sekyi-Brown has also been leading a social media campaign which is calling for the immediate opening of the University of Ghana Medical Centre with the hashtag: #OpenUGMCNow.

Meanwhile, the Accra Regional Police Command PRO, Efia Tenge confirmed Reginald’s arrest “the Police interrogated him to find out who he was, what he was holding and whether he had any ulterior motives.”

“We don’t need to see a person physically with a weapon before we whisk them away,” she added.

Reginald also narrated his side of the story saying “When I was brought here [Korle Bu Police station], I was told to write a statement and what they intimated when I was being brought here was that I disrupted the programme.”

“There was a tall, lanky woman who said the bag I was holding might contain certain dangerous equipment and that they should bring it to the station to verify what I might have in the bag. When she made that statement, I stated that if she is accusing me of carrying such dangerous materials, the burden of proof lies on her and my bag is right before them; they can search it. I have my laptop, I have my iPad, I have iPhone and my charger, those were the items in my bag, and if that is what we call harmful in Ghana then that is unfortunate,” he added.