Treason Trial: NIB should be commending me, not charging me – ACP Agordzo

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Dr Benjamin Kwasi Agordzo, says the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) should be commending and not charging him if it had done its work well.

He said he had been accused of sponsoring alleged plot to overthrow the government whereas the money he donated to support Take Action Ghana (TAG) was for medical outreach programmes.

The accused person said this during his evidence-in-chief at the trial of the now nine persons accused of high treason.

ACP Agordzo has been charged with eight others in the ongoing treason trial.

He is facing the charge of abetment of crime to wit High treason, for allegedly donating GHC2,000.00 to TAG and drafting a speech for the alleged plot.

The accused person said there were some other personalities, who also allegedly contributed towards TAG’s medical outreach, but they were not arrested.

He, therefore, described the situation as “selective injustice”.

ACP Agordzo also debunked alleged assertion that he had drafted a speech to be delivered after a successful coup.

The Court heard that TAG’s demonstration was going to be peaceful, thus, he had even advised that a police permit be secured not to only notify, but also indicate the purpose, and number of persons embarking on the protest, and the need for police protection.

That, he said, did not amount to abetment of crime.

The Accused told the court that with almost 36 years’ experience in the Ghana Police Service, he had served as the Director of Operations and Director of Transformation from 2015 to 2018 and worked with some think tanks, research and media organisations on election security and political vigilantes among others where he did a lot of presentations on topical issues relating to security, election violence and political vigilantism.

The Court heard that on November 8, 2018, whilst undergoing a United Nations (UN) Pre-Deployment Training Course in Entebbe in Uganda enroute to Haiti for UN appointment, he (Accused) received a WhatsApp message from Dr Frederick Mac Palm (now deceased).

The court was told that the deceased had gotten his contact from one Bethoven, a policeman, during which their conversation recalled ACP Agordzo’s lecture at the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG) in October 2018 and Mac-Palm (the deceased) lauded him for speaking truth to power.

The court also heard that the deceased also mentioned Take Action Ghana (TAG), which according to him, was a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), he headed and enquired whether ACP Agordzo was interested in joining.

“Another issue that came up for discussion between Dr Mac-Palm and I was whether we should have a TAG Security or TAG Police in the course of, which I used the expression start with a big bang, which has been twisted to fit into a predetermined fabricated agenda.”

“Unfortunately, the prosecution team particularly PW13 who is also the police investigator presented the above harmless suggestion in a negative light as though the advice was meant for a violent overthrow of government.”

ACP Agordzo said the NIB “erroneously attributed big bang to the alleged attempted coup and for the avoidance of doubt, I wish to state that the words were taken out of context because I used the words in reference to the proposed formation of various sub-groups such as TAG Security, TAG Sanitation and TAG Good Governance, among others to be out-doored to speak on various issues”.

He said it was never in reference to any coup as prosecution seemed to suggest.