A popular Ghanaian social activist who had led protests against President Nana Akufo-Addo’s government, has been arrested, after making comments on social media about plotting a coup, the police said on Saturday.
Oliver Barker-Vormawor, leader of the pressure group #FixTheCountry, which had championed protests in the West African country over economic hardships among other issues, was detained on his arrival from the UK at an airport on Friday.
Barker-Vormawor posted on social media that he would stage a coup, if Parliament passed a controversial bill, popularly known as E-Levy.
The bill proposed a 1.75% tax on electronic transactions including mobile money payments.
“If this E-Levy passes… I will do the coup myself. Useless Army!” Barker-Vormawor said in a series of posts on Facebook.
“The post contained 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,” the police said in a statement.
He is expected to be arraigned in court on Monday.
A police spokesman said the activist was being questioned to decide the formal charges that he would face in court.
Akufo-Addo’s second term had been characterised by a series of protests over economic problems and brawls in the hung Parliament, as the government tried to push through, tough policies, it believed could salvage the ailing economy.
The #FixTheCountry hashtag that became a popular social media protest on Twitter in Ghana later expanded into a pressure group supported by the main opposition National Democratic Congress, to stage protests on the streets.
In January last year, soldiers were forced to enter Ghana’s parliament to break up fights between rival lawmakers at odds, over the election results giving Akufo-Addo victory.
Ghana was often praised as a stable democracy in volatile West Africa, although the 2021 elections were marked by opposition accusations of fraud, while five people had died in the violence.
AFP
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