Lead convener of the #FixTheCountry Movement, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, has revealed that during his custody at the Police Station, he was never fed by officers and had to rely on meals from visitors.
Narrating his ordeal to the media on Sunday, March 20, 2022, Mr. Barker-Vormawor indicated that the conditions in Ghana’s cells do not guarantee the welfare and happiness of the inmates. He bemoaned the plight of many inmates who are poorly treated and left to survive under harsh conditions.
“First of all, for all my 35 days in there, not once did the Police come and offer me food, that this is the food that the state has provided them to give to inmates. I had to wait on family and friends who would come and give me food. So, that’s the experience of a lot of people in there. There are some who have gone a year and two years and have never received any family coming to see them… So, that’s the experience I went through and I know that there are people in there who are starving”.
Oliver Barker-Vormawor
Mr. Barker-Vormawor made these known, after he and his colleagues paid a visit to the Ashaiman Police Station to make a donation to the inmates. At the station, he expressed that he was denied access by the Police, due to an ‘order from above’.
Treatment of cell inmates
The #FixTheCountry lead convener intimated that for most of the inmates, most of their families don’t know they are in there because the Police often deny them the right to call anybody to inform them they are there. Mr Vormawor recounted that when he was arrested and put behind bars, he met people who had not eaten for five days and when he eventually complained about it, he was told by the “Police that the people in there are used to it”.
“So, it’s inhuman as far as I’m concerned for people to go these number of days without food through no choice of their own and that’s why we are here”.
Oliver Barker-Vormawor
Reacting to the refusal of the Police to allow them donate the items, he explained that contrary to the claims by the Police, he and his colleagues had earlier expressed their intention to visit the inmates. As such, the claim by the Police that they are not aware of his coming, is false.
“A lot of them don’t have families to visit them, so we have come together to make a donation of some food items and toiletries which from my experience a lot of inmates lack. Now, the Police have informed us informally, because we have not yet made the presentation, that if we make the presentation they won’t give it out…”
Oliver Barker-Vormawor
It will be recalled that the #FixTheCountry Movement confirmed the release from Police custody of its lead convener, Oliver Barker-Vormawor on March 17, 2022, over some coup comments he made. His release came in some 24 hours after he was granted a GH¢2million bail by a Tema High Court on Wednesday, March 16.
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