Five Ghanaians are in police grips, since August this year, and have since made an appearance in court where they were charged with “planning to overthrow the government and destabilizing the peace.”
The arrest took place on August 14, 2023, and was related to a protest organized by a pro-Russian outfit led by one Michael Asiedu, the administrator of Mikado News, a Facebook blog with 1.5K followers that publishes pro-Russian content.
A detailed report by GhanaFact said he was arrested along with four others "by the Ghana Police Service for wearing shirts with Wagner inscriptions."
The report added that their investigations pointed to the fact that the said protest happened on August 13, 2023, at Diabene Park in Takoradi, the capital of the Western Region of Ghana.
"In attendance at the rally were young people with some holding placards with various inscriptions, including – “Biden is a warmonger” and “Long live Russia,” and flags of Ghana, Russia, Niger, Mali and Algeria," the report stated.
Four days later, on August 18, 2023, Michael Asiedu and the four others were granted bail and scheduled to appear in court on October 3, 2023.
The GhanaFact report points to the work of Asiedu and others in pushing a pro-Russia view as part of a shadowy campaign believed to be in the wider interest of Russian mercenary group, Wagner.
The GhanaFact report as produced below extensively covered areas like their shadowy online campaigns and funding methods used towards mobilization for the August protest.
????????Ghana Police arrest demonstrators wearing Wagner symbols.
— Zlatti71 (@djuric_zlatko) August 13, 2023
????????American "advisors" stationed in Ghana suspected of ordering the arrests
⚡️DEVELOPING STORY..
⚠️We are providing assistance and will update as the situation develops. The local Ghana Media are onto this too.… pic.twitter.com/6JhCLB8VhW
Operational tactics in Ghana
On the Telegram pages, GhanaFact discovered details of the operational procedures of the network. The pages are used as the source of disseminating information, which implies that any information posted on the pages is subsequently replicated on other media, including Twitter and Facebook.
For instance, a post about Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Member of Parliament of North Tongu, shared on the AussieCossack channel has been reshared multiple times on X (here, here and here).
Also, on August 7, a flyer for a protest dubbed the West African Freedom Rally was posted on the DDGeopolitics telegram channel, and within 24 hours it was amplified across other online media platforms (here, here, here and here). The poster had details such as date, venue, time and guests from the two major political parties in Ghana:
Mr. Kwame, Sir Obed Amponsang, Mr. Ernest Asomani, Madam Akita, Madam Ernestina Amoafoa from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Madam Akosua Yeboah from the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
GhanaFact also found links to podcasts and Twitter space conversations where plans ahead of the pro-Russian/ pro-Wagner protests in Ghana were discussed together with issues relating to logistics for their operations in Ghana.
Through our investigations, the team identified the local point man of the Ghana project, Michael Asiedu, the administrator of Mikado News, a Facebook blog with 1.5K followers that publishes pro-Russian content.
As part of plans to organise the pro-Russian/pro-Wagner protest, 3 online events in the form of podcasts/Twitter spaces were organised on the 5th, 10th and 12th of August 2023.
The August 5 meeting was held on TNT radio, a radio podcast program detailing the initial planning stages. Among the issues discussed were the proposed venue [Independence Square], expected turnout [1000], funding [crowdfunding] and local political backing.
The show host, Aussie Cossack revealed that the Russian Embassy had been informed about the planned protest but did not want to be involved in it’s organisation. (4:44-5:50)