EXCLUSIVE : No Secret Meeting, No $1M Vormawor Bribe, Witnesses Can Prove – Kan-Dapaah
The Minister for National Security, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, has refuted vile allegations of a $1 million bribery made by Convenor of #FixTheCountry Movement Oliver Barker-Vormawor.
In an exclusive interview with The Ghana Report, Mr. Albert Kan-Dapaah explained that his interactions with Mr. Barker-Vormawor were open meetings with other officials present, including the now National Co-ordinator of the Ghana Boundary Commission and former Deputy Commandant of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), Major General Emmanuel Wekem Kotia.
Mr. Kan-Dapaah pointed out that the interaction was purely to hear out Barker-Vormawor, who had been ranting on several issues.
He insisted: “General Kotia was part of the meeting. Ask him if there was any talk about money”.
The National Security Minister added that the meeting was “not shrouded in secrecy. It was to hear his [Vormawor’s] grievance and clarify”.
Mr. Kan-Dapaah emphasised: “I have never called Vormawor myself in life ever”.
Oliver Barker-Vormawor is on bail over treason felony coup posts in 2022 and is expected back at the Accra High Court for the trial on October 12, 2023.
Without providing evidence, Oliver Barker-Vormawor claimed on Friday, September 22, that he was influenced by Mr. Kan-Dapaah with $1 million to stop all his activism.
Mr. Barker-Vormawor, one of the leaders of a pressure group, defied police advice and a further court injunction based on security reasons to lead a protest at Ghana’s seat of government, the Jubilee House, from September 21-23.
Police arrested him along with other demonstrators for breaching the Public Order Act, but they were all released on the same day.
Later, he told journalists that they were manhandled, an accusation denied by the police, who have requested evidence to probe the matter.
Mr Barker-Vormawor also said he was being persecuted.
“While I was in the UK, the National Security Minister called and invited me for a sit-down. The government offered to pay for my flight in order to meet here in Ghana”.
“This was something that was never disclosed to the public”, he said, “but we met at a safe house for us to stop our activism,” Mr Barker-Vormawor claimed.
“This was way before we started the first #FixTheCountry demonstration”.
“We were offered not only money but appointments; and if we agreed to stop this, we were going to be free, but the most important thing was not to bring citizens onto the streets,” he claimed.
He continued: “When we rejected that, Kan-Dapaah, the National Security Minister, said to my face that if we decide to continue on this course of action, we will be arrested.”
“We will be dealt with, and that it will be over his dead body any demonstrations will happen. At the time we were even in Supreme Court at the time”.
“So, I was not surprised that I was ultimately arrested by the government and continue being charged for treason,” he said, adding: “For over two years now, the government has tried to prevent us from mobilising people.”
Meanwhile, a statement from the National Security Ministry has debunked the claims and challenged Oliver Barker-Vormawor to provide proof.
While many have questioned why Mr. Vormawor has not released the voice recording yet over this meeting that took place long ago, others think this may just pile up more trouble for Mr. Oliver Barker Vormawor if such recordings, especially on the bribery and appointments, are non-existent.