A 33-year-old Emergency Nursing student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Simon Awini Ayamga has been arrested by the Police for threating to burn down the Supreme Court.
He issued the threat in a WhatsApp group chat about the pending Supreme Court ruling on whether Electoral Commission Chair, Jean Mensa should mount the witness box or not. The group is called POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE.
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A copy of the WhatsApp chat, available to ABC News indicate a member of the group posted a message saying that
1. Pre-trial interrogatories – DENIED”; “2. Inspection of witness documents – DENIED,” and that triggered the threat from Simon Ayamga who wrote that they will burn down the Supreme Court if Jean Mensa is not allowed to testify.
His exact words were “Then we will burn down that place call [sic] the Supreme Court…They dare not say Jean Mensah should not enter the witness box.”
The suspect was therefore picked up by a joint team of Police and Intelligence operatives from Accra, who went in pursuit of the him following his treacherous WhatsApp comment.
He was arrested at Caesar Hostel, Ayeduase New Site in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region on the evening of Wednesday February 10, 2021 at about 6pm.
National Security sources told ABC News that upon further interrogation, they realized the suspect was an active member of the WhatsApp political platform, known as Politics and Governance.
“He has since admitted to the said conversations and also to actually planning with like minded persons to execute some acts with the potential to breach the peace of the nation,” the source said.
According to the source, a threat to the Supreme Court is a threat to the embodiment of the law of the country and as such, it will not be taken lightly.
“Individuals are hereby encouraged to desist from making such utterances, as they will face the full rigors of the law if they are apprehended,” it added.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court will on Thursday, February 11, 2021, rule on whether the EC Chair should mount the witness box or not.
This follows the decision of the two respondents in the ongoing election petition hearing not to call any witness because “we believe the petitioner has not been able to provide evidence to justify the reliefs he is seeking from the court.”
But counsel for the petitioner, Tsatsu Tsikata presented a litany of precedents, law reports, laws and earlier events during the hearing to buttress his demand on the EC to mount the witness box and testify.