A prosecution witness in the ongoing treason trial of some ten persons alleged to have plotted the overthrow of the Akufo-Addo government has said the alleged coup leader had said democracy had failed in Ghana.
According to Staff Sergeant Sule Awarf, Dr. Fredrick Yao Mac Palm of the Citadel Hospital had told his recruits that democracy has brought about indiscipline in Ghana.
The Medical Doctor is also said to have claimed that both the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) had failed the country and that only military rule could put the country back on course.
Mr. Awarf also claimed that the coupists had planned to hold President Akufo-Addo captive in an uncompleted building at Adenta upon successful execution of the coup plot.
Dr. Mac Palm, along with Donyo Kafui, alias Ezor, Bright Allan Debrah, alias BB, Johannes Zikpi, Colonel Samuel Kojo Gameli, WO2 Esther Saan, Corporal Abubakar, Lance Corporal Ali Solomon, Sylvester Akanpewe, and Assistant Commissioner of Police Benjamin Korsi Agordzo are standing trial over alleged high treason.
They have since been granted bail.
According to Staff Sergeant Sule Awarf, says he and the seven other officers had been recruited for the coup plot and that he had feigned interest in order to gather evidence against the plotters.
He says he secretly gathered both audio and video evidence while feigning participation in the coup plot.
He told the Accra High Court hearing the case that the soldiers who were recruited for the alleged coup demanded ¢50,000 cash each.
Sule, who claims he secretly recorded the meetings upon instruction by his superiors, said, the amount included charges for their assistance during the exercise.
The prosecution witness said he was unhappy about the coup plot because of what he witnessed on peacekeeping missions in South Sudan and also did not want his name to be mentioned among the plotters.
He, therefore, informed one Colonel retired Ansu, his former boss who directed him to Major General Omane Agyekum, his commandant and later to Major General Andoh, Director General of Intelligence.
These officers then asked him to feign interest and were implanted with both audio and video devices to record all their activities whenever he attended their meetings.
According to Award, their meetings were mostly attended by WO2 Esther, Bright, and Corporal Sylvester Akanpewe, and they were given cellular phones with sim cards for communication among the group members.
Awarf also said Dr. Mac Palm initially told him he had policemen in Kotobabi and the Eastern Region who could supply them but later turned to Donyo Kafui, alias Ezor, the blacksmith from Alavanyo when the said security men failed.
And Dr. Mac Palm sent him to pick Ezor from 37 bus station when he arrived in Accra.
He said Ezor had been given ¢7,000 by Mac Palm to buy materials for the weapons, and that he had manufactured a number of pistols and Improvised Explosive Devices and video recorded the manufacturing process.
The prosecution witness said Ezor once made the call in his presence to buy an AK 47 to augment the stock of weapons.