William Yerenkyi, the Founder and Leader of the Alliance for Restoration of Civil Rights, has been granted police inquiry bail after allegedly being held for 48 hours in police custody.
He appeared before the Gbese District Court in Accra on November 15, 2024, over threats at a police officer (CID), where he was granted police inquiry bail. "On Friday, 15th November 2024, in a case of such high profile, I was paraded at the Accra Central market in handcuffs and further transported to court in a taxi and arraigned before the Gbese District Court on charges of breaching the public peace. "This charge was entirely unrelated to the reasons for my arrest and instead stemmed from the criminal incident of 30th December 2023, in which I was a complainant.
Despite clear evidence of the injuries I sustained and video footage proving the attack, those evidences and facts were deliberately withheld during the proceedings, the investigator falsely framed the incident as a mere altercation between two individuals," he wrote in a Facebook post.
He continued that, "The court asked police prosecutors for the charges to be amended and ultimately dismissed the charges, and I was acquitted." On the other hand, according to Mubarak Ibrahim, the Secretary of the Alliance for Restoration of Civil Rights, William was arrested when he was summoned to the Central Police Station in Accra on November 13, 2024, for a letter. He explained that the summons related to an impending demonstration initially scheduled for November 7-11, 2024, aimed at protesting alleged inaction on corruption, dereliction of duty, and selective enforcement of the Right to Information Act. Mubarak stated that upon William's arrival at the police station, he was directed to report to the CID officer in charge of the case, where an altercation occurred, leading to his arrest. "They called Yerenkyi and said he had a letter and should come to collect it.