‘You Are Guilty’ - The Hawk Newspaper

Oliver Barker-Vormawor, was on Wednesday, March 16, 2022, granted bail in the sum of Two Million Ghana Cedis (GH¢ 2,000,000.00) with two sureties by the Tema High Court, presided over by Justice Daniel Mensah.

The Republic of Ghana is prosecuting Baker-Vormawor for treason felony over a social media post. He was ambushed and arrested at the Kotoka International Airport.

His crime is that he posted on his facebook timeline that; ‘He will do the coup himself if the e-levy is passed by parliament.

Retelling a conversation, he had with his before he was arrested, he decided to plead guilty if ever he was produced before a judge, to answer to whatever charge. For him, under our laws, if a person pleads guilty with an explanation, and the explanation he or she gives is inconsistent with his plea of guilty, the judge is required to record a plea of “not guilty”.

He said, there are several times however, that Judges failed to do that and sentence persons immediately. Recognized the possibility that this could happen with him, and that there was nothing that should comfort him about placing his fate in the hands of the judiciary, as corruptible as it is. He said, it had to be as it ought to be.

‘You are guilty yourself, for sitting in judgment over me, when you know these are trumped up charges yet you are afraid to speak up’, he said this was going to be his reaction to the Judge for asking he if he was guilty or not.

Details of Oliver’s post on his facebook timeline …..

This morning, my friend re-sent me something I had typed and sent to her on my flight to Ghana, that I would like to share with you. I haven’t seen it again after my arrest.

You see, before I stepped onto the Flight to Ghana, I knew that this Government was preparing to arrest me.

I did not know how long my detention would be once arrested; or what treatment I will be subjected to. I readied myself mentally.

In the flight, I decided to re-watch my favourite movie, “V for Vendetta”. To ready my mind and remind myself that no matter how long it takes, freedom prevails over tyranny.

I decided there and then that if ever I am produced before a judge, to answer to whatever charge. I will first plead “guilty with an explanation”. Under our laws, if a person pleads guilty with an explanation, and the explanation he or she gives is inconsistent with his plea of guilty, the judge is required to record a plea of “not guilty”.

There are several times however that Judges fail to do that and sentence the person immediately. This is against law. I recognized the possibility that this could happen with me, and that there was nothing that should comfort me about placing my fate in the hands of our judiciary, as corruptible as it is. But I said, it had to be as it ought to be.

Then I took out my phone and started writing down what I would say to the judge. This is what I had typed out …

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“I have come before you Judge, believing and where belief fails me, hoping that in as much as corruption and moral decay pervades the soul of our now lost democracy, some remnants of justice still live within these walls. I have sought for that justice in your eyes, as I have watched you attentively. I have longed for that justice in that wig you wear with discomfort even though it’s mere presence in this Republic is a reminder of a brutal violence that our forebears fought against. I have searched for that justice in the cloak you wear in a temperature that shouldn’t admit it.

My Lord, something is wrong with this Country. Our Democracy and all that we consider dear about it is at the edge of being lost. In its place, we have now a system that knows no morals. A system that watches little children starve while the naked emperor rides in luxury jets.

Oh, how low we have sunk as a democracy; while we play fiddle and suck at our thumbs. Our democracy has fallen to a political class whose morality is only as forthright as their love for money.

Our national security apparatus is now a militia at the service of a decrepit State, which tortures journalists and orders robbery hits against former sexual partners of the emperor.

I am of course, a nobody, who may not live long to see the new Ghana. A Ghana that is built on truth and a desire for fairness. And for as long as I am alive, I shall ensure that my voice serves only to remind our emperor of his nakedness.

Our communities are dying from being left behind; their waters are being poisoned by galamsey criminal networks that are headed by ministers of State who dine at their masters’ feet. We all know them, yet we all continue to look the other way.

Never under any Government in this Country, has our military descended into a civilian community and massacred them for standing for justice. Never has the lust for power, fueled by weak egos and men who are short in their intellect driven this country to the brink of losing our democracy.

Journalists are being abducted and tortured in chambers of horror. Journalists are being killed for daring to question authority.

We live now openly under a culture of silence enforced by a political class and criminal enterprise who have made the pursuit of gluttony their guiding principle.

Violent desires have violent ends!

My Lord, I grew up as a little boy, who had faith in our democracy and the promise it held. I stand now before you as a disillusioned young man, who cannot fathom how for 30 years, we employed deceit, glib generalizations and violence to impoverish our people. We are like a raft lost at sea without anchor. And yet to be sane in this country is to embrace the madness unleashed on us every day.

Money, and partisanship rules everything around us. The poor can no longer afford a place to live, to eat much more to seek justice when they are wronged.

In my short life, I have been flooded by stories of people who are at their lowest ebb and who have resigned from project Ghana. In my short period of advocacy, I have been exposed to the ugly underbelly of our system.

Our people are dying! Our young people are turning to drugs. They have seen their futures stolen from them in droves. People who have been unemployed for 8 years. I have seen people who in their hour of need have turned to the Police for help, only to be sexually abused; and most times scammed out of their last pesewas, by the same police service that is supposed to offer them protection.

We have watched on as this political class has bought all people of conscience. Voices have been bought and paid for. MPs sit on boards of state-owned companies. MPs are assigned to non-ministerial roles at the office of the President; Journalists sit as board chairmen; and are appointed to juicy roles.

There is no centre anymore that binds.

And to subsidize the profligacy of a political system that doesn’t know how to stop beating down on the already broken, we are now being asked to give up our wallets so they can pick our pockets directly.

On my mother’s yet to be dug grave, I swear this immorality will not stand for long.

So, you ask if, I am guilty? Of course, I am guilty. I am guilty for being silent and being an enabler of those who stole all that is left of our dignity.

You are guilty yourself, for sitting in judgment over me, when you know these are trumped up charges yet you are afraid to speak up.

But I’m I guilty of the Offences charged.? Absolutely not. But I have been Ghanaian for long to enough to know that whether I am guilty or not doesn’t matter in a system held together by its perversion rather than its search for freedom, truth and justice.

My lord, for justice to prevail, the people should no longer be scared of their government. Their government should be scared of them.

And until that new world comes, I urge all to keep believing and to not let the bastards grind you down.

Shalom