Worse Than Dictatorship -As Youth Activists Dubiously Charged With Treason Felony For Saying “Coup”

The brutal reign of terror of the Akufo Addo administration continues as youth activist, Oliver Barker-Vormawor is charged by a “Kangaroo” court with treason felony for daring to write the word “Coup” on his social media page.

Barker-Vormawor is a leading member of the youth group, #FixTheCountry, a group that the Akufo Addo administration had desperately but unsuccessfully tried to squash for their calls for reforms to the cycle of corruption and misrule in Ghana had used words such as “Coup” and “Useless Army” to express his disgust at recent happenings in Ghana.

In a series of Facebook postings, Barker-Vormawor had aggressively slammed the security agencies for carrying out state-sponsored killing of unarmed Ghanaians and had also been vocal against the obnoxious Electronic Levy (e-Levy) that the government is unsuccessfully attempting to push down the throats of Ghanaians.

However, upon his visit to Ghana on Friday, February 11, 2022, from his UK base where he is pursuing his Ph.D. law studies, Mr. Barker-Vormawor was picked at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) by armed men; whisked away to an unknown location and kept in detention for over 24 hours without allowing him access to his lawyers or his family and friends.

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.

Eventually, after the Ghana Police Service (GPS) had illegally kept him for over 60 hours, instead of the required 48 hours, he was arraigned before a circuit court in Ashaiman and was charged with Treason Felony.

Unfortunately, the corruption of the judiciary came to the fore once more as it is revealed that a circuit court does not have any business sitting on a treason felony charge, as it requires at least a 3-judge panel of the High Court.

Also, the posture of Mr. Barker-Vormawor and his #FixTheCountry movement has clearly demonstrated readiness to employ lawful means to push their relentless call for a constitutional change in Ghana to reverse its wanton abuse by the political class.

In fact, in the said statement that he is being slapped with treason felony, Mr. Barker-Vormawor had clarified in subsequent posts.

He described the “Army” as useless for their senseless killing of civilians. Also, he described his “coup”, which literally means to “hit”, as referring to a group of international lawyers ready to fight on the side of #FixTheCountry to overthrow the attempted introduction of the e-levy.

“Earlier this week, FixTheCountry reached an agreement in principle with the International Lawyers Project. They have agreed to team up with our legal team by assisting us… to bring a solid lawsuit against the E-Levy it ever passes through Parliament. Huge Coup,” Oliver stated.

Apparently, a paranoid Akufo Addo administration had failed to properly understand the various semantic meaning the word “Coup” means. The government’s automatic response to the mention of the word is to equate it with Coup d’état, which is a systematic military overthrow of a government.

This unnecessary victimisation was not lost on US-Based Ghanaians law Professor, Kwaku Asare, who insists that expressing strong resistance to an unpopular government policy is not the same as the crime of treason as stipulated in Article 182 of Ghana’s Criminal Code.

Indeed, Article 19(18) loudly confirms Professor Asare’s argument.

The specific provision in the Article reads: “An act which aims at procuring by constitutional means an alteration of the law or of the policies of the Government shall not be considered as an act calculated to overthrow the organs of government.”

According to the Constitution, “treason shall consist only (a) in levying war against Ghana or assisting any state, or person or inciting or conspiring with any person to levy war against Ghana; or (b) in attempting by force of arms or other violent means to overthrow the organs of government established by or under this Constitution; or (c) in taking part or being concerned in or inciting or conspiring with any person to make or take part or be concerned in, any such attempt.”

“You must declare war or assist, incite or conspire with another country to declare war against Ghanafuo or you must attempt, not by words, hyperbole or satire, but by force of arms or some other violent means to overthrow the organs of government or you must take part in either the war or the overthrow,” argued Professor Asare.

“In effect, treason is not some petty charge to be thrown about whenever the security services find a statement that uses war, overthrow or both. Levying war means actual waging of war and force of arms means force of arms!”

According to the law expert, he finds the words used by Barker-Vormawor to be disagreeable, but, “those statements come nowhere near being treasonous. We have a duty to hold government and other officeholders accountable…”

Meanwhile, the growing tyranny in the Akufo Addo administration is piling up bodies of innocent citizens, vocal media personalities and opinion leaders, as well as cowing institutions from standing up to it.

Critics are of the opinion that the regime is one of the most brutal, especially with the recruiting of party militia into the security agencies and using them to unleased terror on unarmed citizens.

Former President John Dramani Mahama recently wrote a letter to President Akufo Addo, warning him about his government’s growing dictatorship.