The Ashaiman District Court will on Monday resume hearing on the case against lead convenor for #FixTheCountry Movement, Oliver Barker-Vormawor.
Mr Barker-Vormawor was charged with a treason felony on February 14, 2022. This is an offence provided for in section 182(b) of Ghana’s Criminal offences Act.
This provides; “Section 182—Treason Felony. A person is guilty of treason-felony and shall be punishable as for first-degree felony who prepares or endeavours to carry out by unlawful means any enterprise which usurps the executive power of the State in any matter of both a public and a general nature.“
Mr Barker-Vormwor threatened to stage a coup following pictures emerging from the Majority Leader’s 65th birthday bash showing an ‘E-levy’-designed cake.
“If this E-Levy passes after this cake bullshit, I will do the coup myself. Useless Army!” he posted on Facebook on February 9.
He was subsequently arrested on Friday, February 11, 2022.
According to the Police, Mr Barker-Vormawor’s “post contains 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 of Ghana.”
In court on February 14, lawyers for Mr Barker-Vormawor, led by Anthony Akoto Ampaw, urged the court to grant him bail.
They accused the Police of defying a Supreme Court ruling that stated that an accused person must be put before the court within 48 hours, with weekends inclusive.
DSP Asare, in a rebuttal, however, pointed out that the Police, over the weekend, reached out to the Chief Justice, hoping to get a court to hear the matter. All efforts, he continued provided futile.
The judge hearing the matter, Eleanor Barnes, remanded the accused person into police custody, pointing out that the nature and severity of the crime meant the court cannot grant bail.
The court also ordered that he should be allowed to see his family and lawyers every day between 10 am and 4 pm.