Demonstrators didn’t know who they were defending, -Some even named EOCO Boss
By Gifty Boateng
The New Patriotic Party’s much-hyped demonstration outside the Economic and Organised Crime Office last week was meant to project grassroots fury over the detention of Dennis Miracles Aboagye, the party’s 2024 campaign communications director. Instead, it has collapsed into a farce of hired bodies and manufactured outrage.
Interviews with protesters reveal a stark picture: a crowd of okada riders and head porters (kayayei) who were summoned by their leaders, promised GH¢150 each, and given fuel to ride to EOCO’s premises.
One rider, laughing as he spoke, said he was called by fellow okada men and told to come he had no idea who Aboagye was, only that there was “something nice” going on. Another, brandishing a placard reading “We’ll not be silenced,” could not explain why he was there, except to say in pidgin that “the boys dey here, everything dey here.”
The most telling exchange came from a demonstrator who, when asked who they were demanding the release of, confidently named Raymond Archer the Executive Director of EOCO himself. The confusion drew instant laughter from journalists, but it was also a damning indictment of the protest’s authenticity.
A group of young women, believed to be kayayei, said they had been brought by their “madam” a woman who, they claimed, had sponsored them to learn soap-making and trade. They could not say who they were demonstrating for, only that they were following instructions.
In short, the protest was a classic Ghanaian political rent-a-crowd: a mobilisation of the urban poor, paid to swell numbers for a cause they neither understood nor cared about. The NPP’s own rank-and-file were conspicuously absent, leading to speculation that the party’s leadership had struggled to muster genuine support and resorted to hiring bodies.
Meanwhile, Aboagye, released on bail after his arrest at Kotoka International Airport on Saturday, has rushed to deny the central allegation: that EOCO questioned him over an alleged GH¢55 million fraud. In a Facebook post, he declared, “FOR THE RECORDS: THERE WAS NO Discussion OF ANY GH¢55million with me by EOCO. None!!!” He described his detention as an “unsuccessful attempt to intimidate” him, claiming it had only strengthened his resolve.
But the denial raises more questions than it answers. If no GH¢55 million was discussed, what exactly was the basis for his arrest and four-day detention? EOCO has remained tight-lipped, and Aboagye’s statement is carefully worded: he denies that the sum was discussed, but does not deny that he was questioned about other financial matters. The ambiguity is convenient.
For the NPP, the episode is an embarrassment. The party has tried to frame Aboagye’s arrest as a politically motivated witch-hunt by the Mahama administration a familiar playbook.
But the revelation that its “mass protest” was populated by paid okada riders and kayayei who could not even name the suspect undermines that narrative. The party appears to have overestimated its mobilising power and underestimated the public’s ability to see through the spin.
Aboagye’s gratitude to the demonstrators “You did not just defend Dennis Miracles Aboagye; you defended the principle that no voice can be intimidated into silence” is a classic deflection, casting himself as a martyr while ignoring the obvious manipulation of the protesters. He thanked his legal team, party leadership, and supporters, but made no mention of the paid foot soldiers whose ignorance he now exploits.
The real story here is not Aboagye’s guilt or innocence that will be determined by EOCO’s investigation and the courts. It is the NPP’s desperation to manufacture public anger when genuine support is lacking.
In a democracy, protests are meant to express the will of the people. When that will has to be bought for GH¢150 and a tank of fuel, it ceases to be a protest it becomes a transaction. And transactions, unlike principles, can be reversed.