Features
British High Commissioner: ‘Instigating a coup in Ghana?’
Mawuse Oliver Barker Vormawor, an apologist of the Opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), was on 12th May, 2022, arrested by the police and charged with careless and inconsiderate driving and non- observance of road markings.
Barker Vormawor is again an ‘acclaimed’ strategist and convener of #FixTheCountry Movement. The FixTheCountry movement claims to be using street protests to ‘force’ the Government to fix myriad of ‘contentious’ issues the country is facing .
He pleaded not guilty before a Magistrate court and was granted bail in the sum of GHC 30,000 with two sureties to be justified.
Barker Vormawor was arrested together with other motor traffic offenders during police patrol to check indiscipline and other motor traffic offences. Two other offending drivers who also appeared on the same day in court with him (Barker Vormawor) pleaded guilty and were sentenced to a fine of GH¢300 each.
The arrest and prosecution of Barker Vormawor seemed to have ‘fascinated’ the new British High Commissioner to Ghana, Harriet Thompson.
So, on Tuesday, 17th May 2022, the British High Commissioner tweeted:”Oliver Barker Vormawor, covener of #FixTheCountry movement, arrested again, I understand for a motoring offence on his way to court. I’ll be interested to see where this goes…”
Readers, remember? Barker Vormawor is currently being prosecuted on a charge of treason felony.
His first arrest and prosecution was in relation to a social media post in which he threatened to stage a coup if the E-levy Bill, then before Parliament, was passed into law.
According to the police, Barker Vormawor’s social media 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.”
And without any provocation from the Ghana Armed Forces, Barker Vormawor described the Ghana Army as “useless” in his social media post.
According to Wikipedia, a coup d’etat (French), often shortened to ‘a coup’ in English or ‘overthrow’, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers.
Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, rebel group, military or by a dictator.
Ghana’s Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr George Akuffo Dampare, was ‘incensed’ by the British High Commissioner’s tweet, thus, describing it as “misguided, unwarranted and biased.”
In a ‘hot’ statement issued in response to Harriet Thompson’s tweet, the IGP said:”Ordinarily, the Ghana Police Service would not have responded to comments such as yours, obviously made from either a biased or uninformed position.
“However, we have learnt from previous painful experience that it has not been helpful to ignore such misguided, unwarranted and biased comments, intended to tarnish the reputation of the Ghana Police Service and that of our country.
“For the moment, we would recommend a Ghanaian saying, that might guide you in your diplomatic engagements; ‘di wo fie asem’, meaning – ‘learn to keep within the limits of what concerns you’ .
“What is more; we consider your tweet a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961), which enjoins diplomatic missions not to interfere in the internal affairs of their host countries.”
Virtually lending support to the IGP’s statement, many Ghanaians have ‘chastised’ the British High Commissioner. For instance, Professor Ransford Gyampo, a political scientist and a senior lecturer at the University of Ghana says:”Ghana must be strict in calling out ignorant and low grade diplomats from other countries who unnecessarily poke their noses into the internal affairs of our country, which does not concern them.”
According to Professor Gyampo:”Ghanaian diplomats in other countries do not meddle in the internal affairs of their host countries, and I cannot fathom why it is the opposite in Ghana.
“Foreign diplomats who are of no relevance in their home countries and posted to Africa as punishment, cannot come and dictate to us.
“They should talk about the ills in their home countries first and confine themselves to their role as spies.”
Professor Gyampo added:”The fact that we receive aid doesn’t mean we must be puppets and tolerate diplomatic buffoonery.
“They exploit our natural resources and pay us pittance. They mine our gold and pay us only five per cent! They take our oil and pay us about 13 per cent!”
Professor Baffuor Agyeman-Duah, a governance expert and a former United Nations Senior Adviser shares similar views with Professor Gyampo. He also says;”we are a sovereign nation and there are diplomatic requirements when a nation engages another nation. When they send their diplomats, they are guided by the general convention.
“What some of our diplomatic officers here do, is to unduly poke their noses in our internal affairs.”
Others who “defend” the British High Commissioner, however, say the IGP should have conveyed his concerns about the tweet, to the British High Commissioner, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration “and that the IGP went overboard and overstepped his limits.”
The “defendants” of the British High Commissioner claim that her comments were so “innocuous” that she did not deserve any reprimand “because she was only seeking information that could have been given to her without turning it into a ‘battle’.”
Questions being asked by some critics of the British High Commissioner include:”Has the new British High Commissioner been posted to Ghana to instigate a coup, using Barker Vormawor-led #FixTheCountry movement ?
“As a brand new High Commissioner in Ghana, why is Harriet Thompson ‘so much in love’ with somebody who has clearly stated that he will stage a coup to overthrow the Government of the Republic of Ghana?
“There are a lot of motor traffic offenders who have been arrested and are facing prosecution in the country; why is the British woman singling out Barker Vormawor for mention and attention ?
“With the E-levy passed into law, is the British High Commissioner encouraging Barker Vormawor to operationalise his intents of staging a coup and with covert support?
Thompson, British
“Is the British High Commissioner not very much aware that the American Embassy in Ghana played a major role in overthrowing Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s regime in 1966?”
Readers, can you also ‘smell’ ‘anything’ in the tweet of the British High Commissioner?
Contact email WhatsApp/ of author:
asmahfrankg@gmail.com (0505556179)
By G. Frank Asmah
Features
New family head for Nii Otu we/Kweifio We
A 56-year-old driver, Ibrahim Nii Darku Amponsah, was last Saturday installed as the 6th family head of the Kweifio/Nii Otu We at Ayikai Doboro in the Ga East Municipality.
He succeeds the late Ibrahim Alhaji Adjah, who performed that duty from 1998 until his demise in August 2024.
Ibrahim Nii Darku Amponsah’s installation was performed by Nii Ashittey Tetteh, head of the Okortshoshiehsie families at James Town and Amamole.
He admonished Nii Darku Amponsah to be a good family head, and resolve family issues with justice.
Nii Ashittey Tetteh, who poured libation and slaughtered animals to pacify the ancestors, said there was nothing fetish about this millennia-old traditions.
Nii Darku Amponsah expressed his profound happiness for the confidence reposed in him, and promised to work diligently to promote the interest of family members.
He called on the youth to avoid violence and negative behaviour during the December 7, polls.
Nii Darku Amponsah paid homage to the five previous family heads and extolled the good works they performed to keep the family interest and unity over the years.
The previous family heads were Nii Oblenteng, Kwaku Amponsah, Kweitse Nii Otu, Nuumo Otinkorang, and Ibrahim Alhaji Adjah.
Caption: Nii Ashittey Tetteh congratulating Nii Darku Amponsah through handshake
A family member pouring powder on NIi Darku Amponsah’s head, while Nii Ashittey Tetteh (left) and other family members look on
By Francis Xah
Features
Ghana, Seychelles deepen bilateral cooperation
The recent state visit by the President of the Republic of Seychelles, Mr Wavel Ramkalawan, has deepened and taken to higher notch, the bilateral relations between the two countries, says Mr Kwame Acquah, the Consul of the Republic of Seychelles in Accra.
Mr Acquah told The Spectator that Ghana and Seychelles have signed seven Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in sectors including culture, trade air service agreement, tourism, aquaculture, and education for the mutual benefit of both countries.
He said there were Ghanaians living and working in Seychelles with about 500 of them working in the fisheries sector in Seychelles with a sister Tuna Company in Tema.
Seychelles is a tiny Archipelago Island in the Indian Ocean, off East Africa with a population of a little over 100, 000. It achieved Independence from British colonial rule in 1976.
The Archipelago Island has a historic relations with Ghana dating back to 1896 when Nana Agyeman Prempeh I, the 13th King of Ashanti Empire, and others were exiled to the Seychelles Island during the colonial rule where he spent 27 years, before the British colonial administrators allowed him to return to Ashanti.
By Alhaji Salifu Abdul-Rahaman
