Kevin Taylor would have shared jail cell with me if he was in Ghana – Barker-Vormawor

Convener of #FixTheCountry Movement, Oliver Mawusi Barker-Vormawor has waded into the recent verdict delivered by an American in a defamation case involving Assin North MP, Kennedy Agyapong and social commentator, Kevin Taylor.

Kennedy Ohene Agyapong filed a defamation suit in a United States District Court demanding damages in the sum of some $9.5 against the social commentator and owner of Loud Silence Media.

However, the court on Thursday, granted a motion to dismiss the suit, saying the MP failed to truly prove that comments made by Mr Taylor about him were defamatory, hence a decision to throw out the case.

In a Facebook post sighted by GhanaWeb, Barker-Vormawor who was recently granted bail, having been charged with treason felony, alluded that Kevin Taylor would have been arrested and detained if his case was filed in Ghana.

According to the youth movement convener, while the basis for Kennedy Agyapong’s claims were deemed deficient in a US court, a Ghanaian court would have held otherwise under the same circumstance.

“It is not lost on me that the very case that Kennedy Agyapong filed and lost against Kevin Taylor would have been more than enough basis in Ghana for a person to be arrested for Publication of False News. In fact, if Kevin Taylor had been in Ghana, he would have been sharing a jail cell with me.

“In the US, it did not suffice for the lower standard used in civil cases. In Ghana, we will ignore the higher standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt to teach critics of the regime and journalists a lesson,” Barker-Vormawor stated in a Facebook post.

He cited a case in which a socialite, Abena Korkor is facing police investigation after naming the National Organiser of the ruling New Patriotic Party, Sammy Awuku as one of the numerous people she has had sexual encounters with.

The activist bemoaned the standard of justice delivery under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who is touted as a human rights lawyer.

“Currently, Government Official Sammy Awuku has reported Abena Korkor to the Police and the Police have seized her phone, claiming to be investigating why she named him as someone who had sex with her.

“This is the Republic we placed in the Hands of a « Human Rights Lawyer,” the convener stated.

Barker-Vormawor spent about 34 days in police custody following his arrest on February 11, 2022, before a Tema High Court granted him bail.

The activist who is a Cambridge University PhD student was arrested in connection with a Facebook post.

According to the police, his post in which he threatened to “do the coup” himself if Parliament passes the E-Levy bill into law, showed a clear intent on his part to subvert Ghana’s democratically elected government and Constitution.

Charged with treason felony, Oliver has been arraigned on several occasions at the Ashaiman Magistrate Court, which denied him bail citing jurisdiction over the charges pressed against him.