Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Dr. Benjamin Kwasi Agordzo who was alleged to have been part of a plot to oust government, has denied masterminding any coup plot against government.
The state during the alleged high treason trial against the retired senior police officer accused Mr. Agordzo of engaging in plans to oust government together with a group called Take Action Ghana (TAG).
Dr. Agordzo during an interview on TV3 after he was acquitted said Take Action Ghana was only a democracy-oriented and non-governmental organisation which was only involved with advocacy and development of the country.
He said he only joined the group after he was approached by the late Dr. Mac Palm who detailed the interest of the group to him before he joined.
He explained that never was there any conversation on coup in all the TAG platforms and its subgroups.
“On all the platforms that I joined, there was nothing discussed about coup de tat or forceful removal of the government in power. Whatever we discussed was democratic issues, battling political vigilantes and election violence, those were the things we discussed.
My trial was because I critiqued police system during an IDEG lecture – ACP Agordzo
“That’s why till today, they have not been able to link me with any statement that I made or was suggested to have been made by Dr. Mac Palm against me,” he said on TV3’s Hot Issues.
Reacting to the prosecution’s claim of passing comments about Arab Spring, Dr. Agordzo said he only shared an opinion on the matter with Dr. Mac Palm as has been done by many other politicians.
“Were we not here when a certain presidential candidate of a major important party used that term [Arab Spring] in a famous radio station. Was he arrested? When one Archbishop used it, was he arrested? When Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe mentioned civil uprising in Ghana was he arrested?” he quizzed.
ACP Dr Benjamin Kwasi Agordzo, was acquitted with two others who were also accused of high treason offence.
The judgment, handed down by the three-member panel of judges on Wednesday, January 24, 2024, marked a significant turn in the legal proceedings surrounding the alleged plot to oust a government.
The two other persons who were accused alongside ACP Agordzo, were Colonel Gameli, and another junior military officer, Corporal Seidu Abubakar, who were both acquitted.
The late Dr. Frederick Yao Mac Palm, the alleged mastermind of the entire plot, was posthumously declared the first accused. The second accused, Donya Kafui, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit high treason and high treason. Similarly, the third accused, Bright Allan Debrah Ofosu, faced convictions on charges of conspiracy to commit high treason and high treason.
Warrant Officer Class Two Esther Saan Dekuwine, the sole female among the accused, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit high treason but not guilty of high treason. On the other hand, Cpl Seidu Abubakar, the seventh accused, was acquitted of both conspiracy to commit high treason and high treason. Lance Corporal Ali Solomon, the eighth accused, received a mixed verdict, being found guilty of conspiracy but not guilty of high treason.
