The social media activist and convenor of the #FixTheCountry pressure group Oliver Mawuse Barker-Vormawor, who was arrested recently by the police and charged with “treason felony” for a series of Facebook posts he made threatening to stage a coup d’état in Ghana, has taken to the same medium, again threatening to stage a coup, over a case relating to the Electronic Transfer Levy (popularly known as the E-Levy) pending before the Supreme Court.
In his latest rant on Facebook, posted Saturday 30 April 2022, Barker-Vormawor writes: “This Attorney General does not fear God. He is claiming that the sick and bedridden Chieftaincy Minister actually went into the Chamber and voted for the E-Levy even though we all saw that the guy was stuck in his ambulance.”
He goes further, claiming: “If the Supreme Court actually throws away the last of its dignity; to join the puppet master in that deception; all just to punish Ghanaians with E-Levy at all cost; so that they Article 71 holders can live large at the Expense of the People.
“Then at that juncture dier, we have crossed the rubicon of No return and I will do the Coup myself,” Barker-Vormawor writes, in the message posted on his Facebook wall.
The #FixTheCountry Convenor repeated his previous claim by describing the Ghana Armed Forces as being a “useless army”.
Bail conditions
On Wednesday (16 March 2022) the Tema high court granted Barker-Vormawor bail in the sum of GHC2 million with two sureties.
One of the sureties was instructed to deposit documents covering a landed property within the jurisdiction of the court.
Another rule of Barker-Vormawor’s bail conditions requires him to report to the police once a week.
Previous coup claims
In a series of Facebook posts that led to the arrest of Barker-Vormawor on 11 February 2022 and his ongoing prosecution, he described the Ghana Armed Forces as “useless” for not acting despite the public uproar against the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy), which is expected to come into effect on 1 May 2022.
“If this E-Levy passes after this cake bullshit, I will do the coup myself. Useless Army!” Barker-Vormawor wrote in one of his posts.
In another post he said: “Okay, let’s try again. If this E-Levy still passes after this cake bullshit, then may God …. Help us to resist oppressor’s rule, With all our will and might for evermore. (2x). Useless Army. Anaa, the value is the same?”
Current charges
The state has charged Barker-Vormawor with treason felony, contrary to Section 182(b) of the Criminal and Other Offences Act 1960 (Act 29).
On the charge sheet filed at the Ashaiman district court, the particulars of offence show that the accused, at some point in February 2022, prepared to undertake by unlawful means an enterprise which would usurp the executive powers of the Government of Ghana.
Police arrest
Oliver Mawuse Barker-Vormawor, a convenor of the #FixTheCountry pressure group, was picked up by the Tema Regional Police on Saturday 12 February 2022, for allegedly saying that he would stage a coup in Ghana if Parliament passed the E-Levy Bill.
A police statement published on 12 February 2022 said that Barker-Vormawor is being kept at the Tema Regional Police Command to assist with further investigations into his social media post.
First court sitting
After the charge was read to him in open court on 14 February, Detective Superintendent of Police Sylvester Asare read the brief facts. Barker-Vormawor’s lawyer, Akoto Ampaw, applied for bail for his client but the state opposed the application.
In her ruling at the Ashaiman district court, Magistrate Eleanor Barnes Botchway said she did not have the mandate to grant bail in a case involving a charge of treason felony.
She subsequently remanded the accused into police custody and, working with the two-week timeline required by law to have accused on remand make an appearance in court, she adjourned sitting to 28 February 2022.
Brief facts
The brief facts as presented in court by DSP Sylvester Asare state that “the accused person is a lawyer and convenor of a social movement, namely ‘FixTheCountry’. Some time in February 2022, the Ashaiman Police received a report that the accused person was inciting some groups of persons believed to be members of the FixTheCountry movement.
“That on receipt of the report, the police mounted surveillance on the accused person until his arrest at Kotoka International Airport on Friday 11 February 2022, when he arrived from the United Kingdom (UK). Preliminary investigation has revealed that accused is a lawyer and a PhD student at Cambridge University, UK.”
The facts further say that “it has also been established during investigation that the accused for some time now has been inciting some group[s] of persons through the social media [sic] to undertake an unlawful enterprise to usurp the executive powers of the Government of Ghana”.
“Pursuant to his preparation to usurp the executive powers of the Government of Ghana, accused further published on his Facebook wall that the Ghana army is useless and went ahead to declare his intention in a Facebook post to stage a coup if the Electronic Transaction Levy [E-Levy] is passed by Parliament.”
Wilberforce Asare
Asaase Radio 99.5 – tune in or log on to broadcasts online
99.5 in Accra, 101.5 in Bawku, 99.9 in Bimbilla, 100.3 in Cape Coast, 90.7 in Ho, 98.5 in Kumasi, 99.7 in Tamale, 89.5 in Tarkwa and 106.9 in Walewale
Join the conversation. Call: 020 000 9951 or 059 415 7777. Or WhatsApp: 020 000 0995.
#AsaaseRadio
#TheVoiceofOurLand
