Mr. Simon Osei Mensah, Ashanti Regional Minister has called on government to have a second look at punishments meted out to offenders of public safety protocols spelt out in the enforcement of the Imposition of Restrictions Act.
According to him some provisions of the act are hard to implement since the amounts of money quoted cannot be paid by some offenders who are caught for reasons as little as not being able to afford a face mask that costs GHS2.00
“Because of the criticisms, we have stopped. They say it’s not lawful and the foundation of any democratic dispensation is the rule of law. So if someone is flouting the law, I am not a lawyer, having no education in law so I cannot encourage the law enforcement agents to carry on with it so we are pleading, Ghana, sometimes, we there are some things we can do with. It is not offensive to make someone sweep; is it work? If you are asked to desilt a gutter, you do it and you go; it will help us” he said referring to the concerns many including some human right groups and activists have raised about making people undertake menial jobs upon their apprehension for breaking the laws.
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He believes that making offenders take menial jobs will serve also serve as a strong deterrent especially when people will want to avoid the situation of being shown on national television and they should be given the opportunity to implement such punishments.
“So some part of the law’s implementation has become hard. Truly, some part has become hard. They should allow us so that the people can get back to sweeping. Our environs will be clean and they will also adhere to the laws because no one wants to be seen on TV sweeping as a punishment”
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He also called on the security services to try and add to their duties the observation of social distance protocols by registrants in the ongoing voters’ registration exercise at various centers.
Observations of the social distancing protocols has become a serious issue since the commencement of the voters’ registration exercise.
According to the law, a person who fails to comply with a restriction imposed under the EI 164 be made to pay not more than GH₵12,000 and not less than GH₵6,000 or to a term of imprisonment of not less than four years and not more than 10 years or to both.
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The Ghana Bar Association has also called for a review of the punishments stipulated in this law.
