Why Ghana’s Army is useless – Barker-Vormawor explains coup comment

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One of the conveners of pressure group #FixTheCountry Movement, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, has explained why he labeled the Ghana Armed Forces as ‘useless’ in a social media post in which he threatened to stage a coup.

According to him, the army is useless because it has become an active participant in brutalizing citizens.

In an interview with Accra-based Asaase Radio, Barker-Vormawor argued that the conduct of the military flies in the face of democratic tenets.

In the June 10, 2022 interview where he discussed activism in Ghana, the trained lawyer insisted that the army is useless as a result of not being able , to protect Ghana's democracy.

“I think our Ghana Armed Forces is useless because this is the image so many people have of them. They think its [their] own job is to run around our streets and kill us. They are supposed to be a pillar of our democracy,” Barker-Vormawor said.

“I have seen so many times our army being in our communities brutalizing and killing us. I have seen our armed forces being directly involved in the [unaccountable] deaths of Ghanaian citizens.

“Take Ejura for instance, our army killed us. When I see our army operating in a way that is unconstitutional, you and I have to call them out and by so doing we call them useless because they are unable to protect our democracy. I believe that the Ghana Armed Forces is useless,” he added.

Barker-Vormawor further stressed that “in no democracy do the army roam on the street and brutalize citizens and kill them. That is unacceptable. And if they do that the least we can say is that they are useless in that endeavour because that is not their use”.

Oliver Barker-Vormawor was arrested on February 11, at the Kotoka International Airport upon his return from the United Kingdom over a coup post on social media.

“If this E-Levy passes after this cake bullshit, I will do the coup myself. Useless Army!” he wrote in one of the posts.

He was subsequently charged with treason felony and spent 34 days on remand.

He was released on bail on March 17, 2022, and is still standing trial over the coup post.