The Convenor of the FixTheCountry Movement, Oliver Mawuse Barker-Vormawor, will spend the next two weeks in police custody after he appeared before the Ashaiman Circuit Court charged with treason felony.
The accused was arrested last Friday for threatening to stage a coup if the E-Levy bill was passed into law by Parliament.
The court presided over by Ms Eleanor Barnes, remanded the accused into police custody until February 28 after he was refused bail on the grounds that the circuit court lacked the jurisdiction to admit the accused to bail because of the nature of the offence.
His counsel, Mr Akoto Ampaw, pleaded with the court to admit his client to bail but the prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Sylvester Asare, opposed the plea and asked that he be remanded due to the nature of the case.
In refusing the bail application, Ms Barnes ordered that Mr Barker-Vormawor be allowed access to his lawyer and three family members daily from 10am to 4pm.
Scores of supporters and well-wishers thronged the court premises to solidarise with their member. Riot Police with water cannon were at hand to prevent any possible breach of the peace.
Mr Barker-Vormawor was arrested on Friday, February 11 2022, at the Kotoka International Airport when he returned from the UK for making suggestive coup threats on social media.
The police has indicated that his “post contained a clear statement of intent with a possible will to execute a coup in his declaration of intent to subvert the constitution of the Republic”.
According to a statement signed by the Director General of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Kwesi Ofori, and issued on Saturday in Accra, Mr Barker-Vormawor’s post contained a clear statement of intent with a possible will to execute a coup.
A declaration, the police said, intents to subvert the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.
The statement said the arrest of Oliver Barker-Vormawor was to enable appropriate investigations to determine whether the security of the state was under threat.
The police called on Ghanaians to avoid making statements that threatened the peace and security of the country.
“We will continue to call on the good people of Ghana to avoid making pronouncements that will lead to the breach of the peace of the country as any such acts contravene the laws of the country,” the statement said.
Mr Baker-Vormawor had taken to Facebook on Thursday to allegedly threaten a coup, following pictures emerging from the Majority Leader’s 65th birthday bash, showing an ‘E-Levy’-designed cake.
He posted that “If this E-Levy passes after this cake bullshit, I will do the coup myself. Useless Army!”
Mr Baker-Vormawor stated that there was a need for leaders in the country to establish a new order, and therefore he’ll commit all his resources for that to happen.
He said he was ready to face the consequences of his actions.
According to reports, some security personnel arrested the Cambridge University PhD student, Mr Baker-Vormawor, upon arriving from the United Kingdom on Friday evening at about 4:00pm.
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
