ACP Agordzo details how defence minister ‘threatened him’

Retired Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Benjamin Agordzo, who was recently acquitted and discharged in the high-profile coup plot case, has accused the Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul, of being behind his prosecution.

Speaking in an interview on Joy News on January 25, 2024, the ACP claimed that Dominic Nitiwul orchestrated his arrest and subsequent investigation which led to the treason trial.

He added that he had evidence of the minister threatening him just two weeks before his arrest; saying “He can take me anywhere he wants, and I will prove to him that he was the one who did it. And I am saying this on record because I have it on my phone. Whatever he said is on the phone”.

The retired police officer has now given details of the supposed threat made against him by Dominic Nitiwul.

ACP Agordzo, in an interview on TV3’s Hot Issues on Tuesday, January 30, 2024, said that the minister threatened him on a WhatsApp platform.

He said that Nitiwul referred to a post he shared on a possible uprising in Ghana after the issue of the coup came up on the said WhatsApp platform and said he (ACP Agordzo) must be brought to order.

“I am currently on the same platform with the defence minister. The name of the platform is ‘Alert with Adam Bona’. Now, on that platform, we have the defence minister, the interior minister, we have politicians, we have spokespersons of this current government. We have police officers, we have military officers and active, and we have all kinds of people, the media people, most of the media people are even on that platform.

“So, there was a comment or somebody posted something about a caption, that civil uprising is imminent. And then it generated discussion. And we all shared our views. Some agreed, some didn't agree. I realized there was even at that point a misunderstanding of the term. And so, I made my point forcefully to say that, look, some of these elements are there. We better take steps to avert them rather than denying them,” he narrated.

He added, “Now, these were some of the comments. I'm just paraphrasing what I said. Now, these comments went and nobody talked about it. Then months after or weeks after, when the issue of this alleged coup plotters were arrested, there was discussion about this. And some people were saying, oh, it couldn't have been a coup… Then all of a sudden, the defence minister reposted that comment I had told you about and then added ‘This is way off the mark. He must be brought to order’.

ACP Agordzo went on to say that he expressed his displeasure about the threat and contacted the administrator of the WhatsApp platform, security analyst, Dr Adam Bonaa, to intervene.

“I protested why anybody should threaten me on this platform. I reported the issue to Adam Bona, who created the platform and whose name is on the platform. Adam Bona contacted him and came back to me to say that, well, he has spoken to him, that, look, this is an open platform… and therefore you should allow people to express their views.”

He added that he was arrested about two weeks after the incident with the minister on the platform.

“These are all on record, and we could go back to it. And he, himself, and I mean, anybody on that platform could access what I'm talking about. And so, I was threatened by the minister. And if just barely two weeks after the threat, I was arrested, where would I look? I could only look at the, I can only attribute it to the defence minister.”

A source on the said WhatsApp platform has confirmed to GhanaWeb that the said altercation happened.

But it cannot be confirmed as the cause of the arrest and trial of the former police officer.

Watch the interview below:

Retired ACP Agordzo says he was threatened by Defence Minister two weeks before his arrest.#HotIssues pic.twitter.com/HOImMNeE5R

— #TV3GH (@tv3_ghana) January 30, 2024