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• Accused persons include seven officers of the Ghana Armed Forces
• Coup masterminded by Dr Fredrick Yao Mac Palm
A prosecution witness in the ongoing treason trial of some ten persons including seven officers of the Ghana Armed Forces has told an Accra High Court how the soldiers who were recruited to allegedly overthrow the government demanded an amount of GHC50,000 each.
Staff Sergeant Sule Awarf led by Mrs Yvonne Atakorah Obuobisa, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), in his evidence-in-chief, chronicled how he was contacted by the leaders of the coup plot through its only female member, Warrant Officer Class Two (WO2) Esther Saan, in 2019, about their coup plot said to have been masterminded by a medical doctor, Fredrick Yao Mac Palm.
The witness according to a GNA report said he met Bright Allan Debrah, alias BB, at the Next Door Beach Resort-Teshie, who in turn introduced Mac Palm to him as the Chief Executive Officer of the Citadel Hospital, located at Alajo, who (Mac Palm) convinced him (Sule) that there was the need to overthrow the incumbent government because, in addition to the National Democratic Congress, they had failed the country.
The three-member panel sitting on the case; Justices Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwe, Hafsata Amaliba and Stephen Oppong heard that the role of Sule and Esther was to recruit members of the security forces to join the plot to overthrow the government with the promise that they would be rewarded with positions after they assume power.
The witness said to have captured various stages of the alleged coup plot both on audio and video as instructed by his superiors, said, that Dr Mac Palm convinced them that democracy was not good for Ghana as it had lost discipline and it was only the military that could restore discipline back to the country.
Staff Sergeant Sule said he did not desire for his name to be associated with the coup plot having witnessed the effects of coup d’etat on some countries including South Sudah where he had been before.
He thus informed Colonel retired Ansu, his former boss who directed him to Major General Omane Agyekum, his commandant and later to Major General Andoh, Director General of Intelligence when Dr Mac Palm sought to court his support for the plot.
According to the witness, his superiors instructed him to feign interest in the plot after he was issued both audio and video devices to record all their activities whenever he attended their meetings.
He named WO2 Esther, Bright and Corporal Sylvester Akanpewe as regular participants in the group’s meetings and that each “executive member” was given a mobile phone for the purpose of communication within the group at which point a GHC50.00 credit was loaded onto designated sim cards contained in the phones.
Whilst he attended the meeting with Staff Sergeant Naziem and Sergeant Zakari Rahim, Sylvester Akanpewu went with one Nii Ankrah, Lance Corporal Ali Solomon and Corporal Abubakar Sadique, Sule said.
As part of their plans, the group at their meetings discussed the number of soldiers to be recruited, sketch map of key installations to be targeted, where to keep the President and his administrators when captured, acquiring weapons, the welfare of the soldiers, among others.
The witness said WO2 Saan at one of such meetings suggested that the President should be eliminated and not kept in an uncompleted building at Adentan Housing as suggested by him (the witness).
On how to acquire weapons for their operations, Sule according to the GNA report said, “Mac Palm initially told him he had policemen in Kotobabi and Eastern region who could supply them but later turned to Donyo Kafui, alias Ezor, the blacksmith from Alavanyo when the said security men failed. He said Mac Palm made him (Sule) to pick Ezor from 37 bus station when he arrived in Accra.”
Sule told the court that he was given an amount of GHC7,000.00 to facilitate the buying of materials for the weapons and other accessories which Ezor used to manufacture a number of pistols and Improvised Explosive Devices.
The witness said he captured the manufacturing process on video.
“The prosecution witness said Ezor again once made a call in his presence to buy an AK 47 to augment the stock of weapons, adding that realizing Ezor had completed his work and was about to go back to Alavanyo, he informed his boss and he was asked to delay Ezor, leading to the accused persons’ arrest when they went to test the weapons at the Military Shooting Range, Teshie,” the GNA reported.
In total, ten persons; Mac Palm, Ezor, BB, Johannes Zikpi, Colonel Samuel Kojo Gameli, WO2 Esther, Corporal Abubakar, Lance Corporal Ali Solomon, Sylvester Akanpewe and Assistant Commissioner of Police Benjamin Korsi Agordzo are standing trial over the alleged high treason.
All the accused persons are currently on bail.
