FixTheCountry’s Oliver Barker arrested after vowing to stage a coup if the E-Levy bill is passed

FixTheCountry’s Oliver Barker arrested after vowing to stage a coup if the E-Levy bill is passed

The leading convenor of FixTheCountry movement Oliver Barker-Vormawor has been arrested by the Tema Police Command. A press release from the Ghana Police Service has confirmed his arrest.

In the press statement, Mr. Oliver was arrested by the Tema Regional Police Command following a post he made on his social media page to the effect that he would stage a coup himself if the E-Levy Bill is passed by Parliament.

According to the security agency, Oliver’s comment in the post contained a clear statement of intent with a possible will to execute a coup in his declaration of intent to subvert the constitution of the Republic of Ghana.

FixTheCountry’s Oliver Barker arrested: Police statement

His call for a stern rejection of the E-Levy with the preaching of the coup d’etat caused a section of Ghanaians to be angry tagging Ghana Police and other state security agencies to immediately arrest him.

What the E-Levy is about

On 17th November 2021, the Minister for Finance announced during the presentation of the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government to the Parliament of Ghana, the introduction of an “Electronic Transaction Levy” or “E-Levy” of 1.75 percent on electronic transactions above GHs 100 (US$16) per day to take effect from 1st February 2022.

The levy will be applied to mobile money payments, bank transfers, merchant payments, and inward remittances.

Ghana as of November 2021, had over 47 million registered mobile subscribers, with 18.4 million active users and over GHS 80 billion (US$13 billion) value of mobile money transactions performed. It comes as no surprise that Ghana has become one of the fastest-growing mobile money markets in Africa, with registered accounts increasing six-fold between 2012 and 2017.

The government in its analysis has predicted that 24 percent of users will drop off within the first couple of months of the implementation of the E-Levy but users will eventually go back to using digital services because the benefits outweigh the negatives.

Source: Accramail.com