Kojo Oppong Nkrumah
The government has parried claims by one of the convenors behind the #FixTheCountry that security agents cloned the phones of the group that met officials last week.
A statement signed by Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, on behalf of the Ministry of National Security, said there is no truth in the claims by one Oliver Barker-Vormanor.
“The Ministry of National Security has taken note of a media publication on May 8, titled ‘How government allegedly cloned phone of #FixTheCountry protest convener’,” the statement said, adding “in the publication, one Oliver Barker-Vormanor, a convener of the #FixTheCountry campaign, alleged that operatives of the Ministry of National Security coerced convenors into a meeting with Cabinet. He further alleged that, the operatives unlawfully cloned one of the phones of the convenors and assessed private chats.”
The minister said that “consistent with standard practices, the phones of all visitors are kept at the reception of the ministry. The ministry has no basis to and did not tamper with the phones of the convenors,” he said, adding that “the convenors were invited for a meeting to which they voluntarily attended. The allegation that they were coerced into a meeting is therefore untrue.”
“Additionally, in instances where the agencies of the ministry need to investigate the electronic devices of a person, legal methods such as a proper court warrant are employed. The phone cloning allegation is also therefore false and baseless,” the minister added.
Fix The Country
Some Ghanaians who say they are dissatisfied with the prevailing conditions in the country have been planning series of demonstrations to press home their demand for the government to ‘fix the country.’
The police secured an order restraining the group from going on demonstration due to the restrictions imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the group said they will go back to court to overturn the decision and go ahead to demonstrate.
The leaders of the group were then invited by the government to a meeting but the leaders later claimed that they were coerced to that meeting.
Bad Faith
In the ensuing heat, the Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, who was at the meeting, said on Joy FM on Saturday that the organisers of #FixTheCountry showed “bad faith” when they met with the National Security Ministry.
He said, “I was at the meeting after I had spoken, I said well, I need to also hear from them but they refused to talk…is that the way to engage the government?”
Mr. Dame reiterated that he was concerned about the timing of the demonstration since the country is still battling with the COVID-19 virus.
“If you look at the letter that they brought, the main purpose for the demonstration is stated on page one of the letter, and I find it a little bit out of place that they would be holding a demonstration in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis,” he added.
By Ernest Kofi Adu