Oliver Barker-Vormawor
The Office of the Attorney General (AG) has filed the bill of indictment which it intends to rely on to convince an Ashaiman District Court to commit the convener of #FixTheCountry, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, to stand trial at the High Court for treason felony charges.
The documents signed by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, include the charge sheet, particulars of the charges, and witnesses the prosecution intend to rely on for the trial at the High Court.
The bill of indictment also include a summary of the evidence the three witnesses the prosecution intends to call, as well as a list of exhibits to rely on to prove their case at the High Court.
Barker-Vormawor was arrested on February 11, 2022, after he allegedly threatened to stage a coup if government went ahead to pass the Electronic Transaction Levy, commonly known as the E-Levy.
He has been charged with two counts of treason felony and has been granted a bail of GH¢2 million by a Tema High Court.
Bill Of Indictment
The bill of indictment lists Andrew Okyere, D/Const. Dunstan Guba and D/CPL Mark Owusu, as the witnesses that the prosecution will be calling during the trial.
It says Andrew Okyere, for instance, will testify that on February 11, 2022, while using Facebook, he saw a post by Barker-Vormawor which read: “If this E-Levy passes after this cake bullshit, I will do the coup myself. Useless Army,” which he considered as having the potential to disturb the peace and stability of the country.
The second witness, Const Dunstan Guba, a police investigator and cyber intelligence lead at the Crime Unit of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), will testify that as part of his duties, he monitors and surveils the cyber space for any activity that can affect the security of the nation.
The witness, according to court documents, will testify that on February 1, 2022, he picked up a URl which leads to the accused person’s Facebook page, where he posted “Year of Coups”, which generated a lot of likes and comments, and an analysis of the comment section reveal that the accused managed to convince a number of people of the need to usurp the executive powers of the state through a violent overthrow of the constitution.
The witness, according the document, will also testify that he obtained court orders for disclosures of electronic information on the Barker-Vormawor’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, and the orders were served on Twitter and Meta, the parent company of Facebook.
Exhibits
The list of exhibits and things to be tendered by the prosecution include intelligence report from the Cybercrime Unit, intelligence report from National Security, caution and charge statements of the accused, Facebook and Twitter posts on April 1, and posts on those platforms from February 2021 to February 2022.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak