Charles Kormi Kudjordji (left) entering the courtroom
Eight persons believed to be members of Homeland Study Group, which is calling for the secession of the Volta Region from Ghana, have been charged with treason.
The accused persons, including the group’s chairman, Charles Kormi Kudjordji, 85-year-old retired educationist, are also facing other charges, including abetment of unlawful assembly and offensive conduct to breach peace.
They were hauled before an Accra High Court yesterday where state prosecutors prayed the court to remand them to enable the police and other security agencies to carry out further investigations.
Remand Request
Winfred Sarpong, a senior state attorney, who represented the Attorney General, told the court that ordinarily the accused persons should have been remanded by a circuit court but since they were arrested in the Volta Region and brought to Accra, the Circuit Court does not have jurisdiction to remand them.
She told the court that the state is opposed to the grant of bail since this is not the first time the accused persons have been arrested for the same offence.
The court heard that the accused persons were arrested in 2017 and later bonded to be of good behaviour only for them to go back to commit the same offence.
Ms. Sarpong told the court that “the accused persons were planning to declare independence today and if they are granted bail, I fear they will get the chance to do so.”
Bail
Mr. Kudjordji prayed the court to grant him bail, saying he was brought to court from the hospital and that his lawyers were not aware of the situation.
A panel of three judges- Justices Jerome Noble Nkrumah, Ekow Baiden and Afia Serwaa Asare Botwe- granted Mr. Kudjordji bail in the sum of GH?250,000 with two sureties, one to be justified.
The others were remanded to reappear on May 22.
Those remanded included Bisa Akorli, 54, Kofi Dzreke, 39, Thompson Tsigbe, 58, Benjamin Agbadzada, 48, Agbenyega Akudzi, 54, Freemen Blikaku, 36, and Nkpe Tsryiri Kudzo, 61.
By Gibril Abdul Razak