The Ghana Police Service has opened up about allegations of planting a ‘stranger’ in the cell of a convener of the #FixTheCountry Movement, Oliver Barker-Vormawor when he was arrested.
According to the police, they planted an informant in the cell of Mr Barker-Vormawor as part of efforts to extract information from the detainee for their investigations.
The activist was arrested on February 11, after he threatened to organise 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 bullsh#t, I will do the coup myself. Useless Army!” he posted on his Facebook timeline on February 10.
He was subsequently charged with a treason felony.
On March 16, Mr Barker-Vormawor was granted a ¢2 million bail and two sureties.
Following his release, Mr Barker-Vormawor in a YouTube address alleged that he was tortured while in the custody of the police.
In a lawsuit which he filed on June 30, Mr Barker-Vormawor alleged that a muscular and heavily-built man was brought into the cell he was kept on Sunday, February 13, 2022.
He noted that the Commander of the Ashaiman Police Station brought the said inmate an “exceptionally heavy loaf of bread which contained a penknife and a mobile phone.”
These gadgets, the activist claim put his life in danger.
Responding to these claims, the Police admitted that there was a cell phone found in the bread, however, there was no penknife.
“To gather information on cell remands, informants are sometimes planted in the cells. The informant was not placed in the cells to harm the applicant,” the police said in a document sighted by the Fourth Estate.
Meanwhile, for spending “unlawful” 34 days in detention, Mr Barker-Vormawor wants the court to declare that “by bringing me to the Ashaiman District Magistrate Court when they knew that a District Magistrate Court does not have the jurisdiction to consider the question of my personal liberty, the Respondents, their agents, officials or assigns or work men have violated my right to administrative justice and to personal liberty.”