Senior police officer, ACP Dr Benjamin Agordzo, for 10 minutes spoke at the Kaneshie District Court when it offered him an opportunity to speak.
Senior State Attorney, Hilda Craig, had told the court that some of them held discussions on whether or not to kill the President once their plot succeeds.
They are also alleged to have planned to acquire electronic equipment solely for the purpose of jamming the National Communications Authority’s system to render all broadcasting stations except the State broadcaster useless.
Read below what the ACP said:
First of all, I am innocent of the charge and I am surprised that despite the abundance of the evidence on the TAG platform to the contrary, the prosecution has charged me with an abetment.
The prosecution is well aware of the purpose for which I donated the 2,000 cedis and is on the platform. The prosecution is also aware that TAG is just involved in medical outreach program and there are a lot of pictures on the TAG platform to that effect.
Prosecution again is aware of the context within which statements in respect of mass mobilization of people was made and that I never drafted any speech and that it was a common Whatsapp message that many people can have access to if it was read here and it was within a context. That forwarded message, the content has to do with the danger posed by vigilante groups all over the world including Ghana. That is the content of the speech they are talking about. It was at the time that the Ayawaso West Wuogon bye election violence was recorded.
My Lord, I am citizen of Ghana and not a spectator and within that context I spoke and made my views known to the world on the WhatsApp platform. A WhatsApp platform that is shared by hundreds of people from all walks of life. Lawyers, there were police , soldiers , teachers , members from civil society organisations sharing ideas. Indeed I had already shared, a year earlier my ideas on political vigilantism and is a subject matter of political discussion today.
I am very certain my Lord, that the prosecution has an ulterior motive to destroy my career and also to gag me. When I talk about prosecution it includes investigations. So they have an ulterior motive to destroy my career and to gag me.
You will observe that when Colonel comes to court he comes with a colonel. You see I come with senior police officer.
We have been sitting here and an ASP has been prosecuting a sitting ASP and Colonel. It’s humiliating. It’s not allowed. The IGP even drew Tiwaa’s attention. You are humiliating us. Asare should not be the one prosecuting me. I am being investigated by a chief inspector. It’s like you investigating an Appeals Court judge. The court says I should report to the BNI, I go and report to my junior. This is torture. When I go to the Police Headquarters I report to the IGP or his Deputy. But when I go to the BNI I report to my junior. What if one day he’s supposed to work with me or under me? Let’s watch these things.”
Senior state Attorney Hilda Craig responded
“He wants to impugn our work. This is a crime against the State. Not against the police. Not a police inquiry. Whoever is put in charge is representing the State. The 30 million of us. ASP Asare is representing all of us. When it’s about the State , anybody who wears this gown is representing the Attorney General. ASP Asare was not acting as ASP here, he was acting as a representative of the Attorney General.”
Magistrate Eleanor Botwe reminded the accused person that the crime is against the State and the prosecutor was simply doing his job.