Legal representative for ACP Benjamin Agordzo, Martin Kpebu, has characterized his client’s trial as politically motivated.
ACP Benjamin Agordzo, along with the late Dr. Mac Palm and eight others, faced charges in 2021 related to conspiracy to commit high treason and high treason.
On January 24, 2024, the High Court acquitted ACP Benjamin Agordzo, while six others were convicted on counts of conspiracy to commit high treason and committing high treason.
During an interview on Eyewitness News on Citi FM, Martin Kpebu asserted that the trial amounted to an assault on freedom of speech.
“It was an affront to free speech to gauge public officers not to complain about President Akufo-Addo’s misgoverning. The very Arab Spring that he complained about was the same thing the man [ACP Agordza] was complaining about. Akufo-Addo had said that Arab Spring was in Ghana; and that there was hunger, unemployment, and everything was there to show that citizens would rise up against the government so they needed to do something about it. So nobody tried President Akufo-Addo in opposition, why do you try ACP Agordzo for Arab Spring?” he asked.
ACP Dr. Benjamin Agordzo expressed confidence in his eventual acquittal from the outset of the legal proceedings in the coup plot case. Meanwhile, the six individuals found guilty of conspiring to commit a coup have been sentenced to death by hanging.
Background:
The charges, initiated on April 24, 2021, implicated Dr. Frederick Yao Mac-Palm, the late Chief Executive Officer of Citadel Hospital, and ACP Dr. Agordzo, along with eight others. The charges included conspiracy to high treason, abetment to high treason, and high treason.
The accused individuals, including Dr. Mac Palm (A1 – now deceased), Donya Kafui alias Ezor (A2), Bright Allan Debrah Ofosu alias Bright Alan Yeboah (A3), Yohannes Zikpi (A4), Warrant Officer Class Two Esther Saan Dekuwine (A6), Cpl Seidu Abubakar (A7), Lance Corporal Ali Solomon (A8), and Cpl Sylvester Akanpewon (A9), faced charges of conspiracy to commit high and high treason.
Colonel Samuel Kodzo Gameli (A5) and ACP Dr. Benjamin Agordzo (A10) were also charged with abetment during that period.