Convener of the #FixTheCountry Movement, Oliver Mawuse Barker-Vormawor has finally been released from police custody after being granted bail Wednesday, March 16, 2022.
He was welcomed by some friends, relatives and sympathizers as well as member of his group when police left him off at the Tema High Court Thursday afternoon.
Barker-Vormawor spent Wednesday night in police custody though he had granted by bail the court.
This is as a result of some challenges regarding his bail conditions.
The Tema High Court A presided over by Justice Daniel Mensah granted Barker-Vormawor bail in the sum of GHS2 million with two sureties to be justified.
The court also ordered that one of the sureties is to deposit a document covering landed property within the court’s jurisdiction.
However, the Ghana Police Service in an initial statement said the Court’s Registrar was unable to complete the verification process at Land Commission of the documents presented by one of the sureties.
Consequently, the Registrar was unable to conclude with the execution of the bail until he received a response from the Lands Commission.
“At the court, the Registrar informed police that he has submitted the doucment presented by the surities to the Land Commission for verification and he was therefore unable to proceed with the execution of the bail until a response was receive from the Land Commission,” the police said excerpt in a statement.
This made the police to take the Barker-Vormawor back to cells for the completion of the bail process by the High Court Registrar.
“We wish to point out that the accused was granted a court bail and therefore the execution of the bail is dependent on the court and not the police.
“The accused will therefore be released when the court is satisfied that the bail conditions has been duly met,” the police said.
However, he has met the bail conditions the subsequent day and he was released by the police to his counsel after the verification from the Lands Commission.
The Tema High Court presided over by Justice Daniel Mensah granted Barker-Vormawor bail considering the facts of the case and the legal arguments by counsel.
The court disagreed with arguments of the position that Barker-Vormawor did not have a fixed place of abode having regard to the facts of the case; and that he was a flight risk since his passport was already in the custody of the Republic.
The activist is accused of inciting an overthrow of constitutional organs of government but he has denied the claims and said he is ready to go for full trial.
He was arrested on February 11, 2022, over claims that he had threatened to cause a coup if the controversial Electronic Transaction Levy also known as E-levy was passed by Parliament.
By Vincent Kubi