“I’m innocent, I’m not bothered, you can take pictures and videos of me and I won’t shy away because I know I’m innocent,” these were the words of Dr Frederick Yao Mac-Palm, owner of Citadel Hospital and one of the main suspects in the ‘attempted coup on the presidency.’
Dr Mac-Palm, together with two others; EzorKafui and Bright Allan Debrah Ofosu, was on Friday, September 20 picked up by a joint team from the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) for plotting a coup against the presidency with the intent to destabilise the country.
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Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, in a Press Release revealed how State Agencies detected and foiled a planned attack on the Jubilee House leading to the retrieval of several arms, explosive devices and ammunitions from Alajo and Bawaleshie in Accra and Dodowa respectfully.
Following the alleged coup attempt, the three accused persons were on September 24 arraigned before the Kaneshie District Court and slapped with five charges.
Some of the charges they’re faced with are a conspiracy to commit crimes; to wit manufacturing of arms and ammunition without lawful authority, possessing of explosives and firearms without lawful excuse and manufacture of firearms without lawful authority.
But, reacting to the charges after court proceedings, Dr Mac-Palm, while being escorted by the BNI to his vehicle shouted by pleading innocent to the charges levelled against him.
According to him, he knows the truth will definitely come out for him to be vindicated so he is not in any way bothered about the whole issue.
However, the Kaneshie District Court, presided over by the Magistrate, Rosemond Dodua Agyiri, has remanded the alleged coup plotters into BNI custody and ordered that family members and lawyers be allowed to visit the accused persons.
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This followed after the prosecutor, ASP Sylvester Asare asked the court to remand the three suspects into BNI custody to enable them to continue with investigations smoothly.
The request was objected to by the defence attorneys who argued that the State should have been ready to prosecute the case if any, due to the number of days the accused person has been with them.
But, the Magistrate granted the request by the prosecution and urged them to expedite their investigations.
The case has been adjourned to October 9, 2019. A fourth suspect only named as Sulley is currently on the run.
Source: Ghanaweb