The Ashaiman District Court has remanded a convener of the #FixTheCountry, Oliver Barker-Vomarwor to Police custody for another two weeks.

The activist is expected to reappear in court on Tuesday, March 15, 2022.

This was after the Court ordered the removal of Mr. Baker-Vomarwor from its premises.

The defendant is said to have engaged in heated exchanges with the Magistrate, Eleanor Barnes Botwe.

Mr. Barker-Vormawor’s lawyer, Justice Srem Sai, had raised issues with the jurisdiction of the Ashaiman District Court to preside over a matter that bordered on the personal liberty of his client.

“Whether this court has the jurisdiction to determine the personal liberty of my client, for there is no point in bringing the prisoner to a court for his liberty to be decided when that court has no capacity or jurisdiction to determine this,” the lawyer argued.

However, the State Prosecutor, ASP Sylvester Asare, responded that the case was at the right forum since the charge of treason felony levelled against him is an indictable offence.

He argued that the trial of such cases must commence at the District court.

Background

Mr. Barker-Vormawor was charged with a treason felony on February 14, 2022. This is an offence provided for in Section 182(b) of Ghana’s Criminal offences Act.

“A person is guilty of treason-felony and shall be punishable for first-degree felony who:

b) prepares or endeavours to carry out by unlawful means, any enterprise which usurps the executive power of the State in any matter of both a public and a general nature.“

The youth activist is accused of threatening to stage a coup should the E-Levy policy be passed.

“If this E-Levy passes after this cake bullshit, I will do the coup myself. Useless Army!” he posted on Facebook on February 9.

He was subsequently arrested on Friday, February 11, 2022.

According to the Police, Mr. Barker-Vormawor’s “post contains 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.”

In court on February 14, lawyers for Mr Barker-Vormawor, led by Anthony Akoto Ampaw, urged the court to grant him bail, but the Court declined the request.