The Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Richard Ahiagbah has said that the right of citizens to protest in a democracy is inviolable and absolute.

It's a tool at our disposal to hold governments accountable.

He stated that the Democracy Hub's protest last weekend, about the adverse impact of illegal small-scale mining (Galamsey) on the environment enjoys the support of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the NPP, who he said had made every effort since 2017 to preserve the water bodies.

However, he said the "execution of the protest suffered the infiltration of some radical elements whose participation detracted from the democratic essence of the protest and now has become a matter requiring the intervention of the police and the courts." To that, he said, the arrest and prosecution of some of the members of the Democracy Hub for the alleged violation of the law was to maintain law and order by the Police.