FixTheCountry Convener arrested over coup threats
The facts as presented by the D/Cop Mark Owusu further indicated that the information received by the Ashaiman Police noted that the accused was inciting some other members of the FixTheCountry movement.
The convener of the social accountability movement, Fix-the-country, Mr. Oliver Mawuse Barker Vormawor, has been arrested by the Ashaiman Police and arraigned before the Ashaiman District Court over reports that he was preparing to usurp the executive arm of government.
He has been charged with Treason Felony contrary to section 182(b) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29).
The facts as presented by Detective Corporal Mark Owusu in The Republic v Oliver Mawuse Barker Vormawor indicates that the accused had via Facebook, declared his intention to stage a coup if the Electronic Transaction levy, popularly dubbed the E-levy was passed by Parliament.
On 9th February 2022, he had written on his Facebook wall that “if this E-levy passes after this cake bullshit, I will do the coup myself. Useless Army!”
The facts as presented by the D/Cop Mark Owusu further indicated that the information received by the Ashaiman Police noted that the accused was inciting some other members of the FixTheCountry movement.
Surveillance efforts by the Police led to the arrest of the accused on his arrival at the Kotoka International Airport on Friday 11th February, 2022. According to the police, this was because the accused’s arrival in the country was “in furtherance of his intention to stage a coup as declared by him.”
The accused is a lawyer as well as a PhD student at the Cambridge University in the UK.
Investigations are still underway on the matter although the accused has petitioned the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service over reports by “one Henrietta Boateng of the ABC News paper in connection with a front page publication of Friday 11 February 2022 which describes me Oliver Barker-Vormawor as a coup détat monger.”
In the petition, he has argued that the importation of the word “coup d’etat” in the media report has altered the meaning he intended with his use of the word Coup in his Facebook post.
