Leader of the Democracy Hub, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, has refuted claims made by the Ghana Police Service regarding the payment of his medical bills during his detention.

In a post shared on his X page on Monday, October 14, 2024, he stated, "Yes, I can confirm the Ghana Police Service took me to the hospital and couldn’t pay for my drugs and medical tests.

"On the first day, they kept harassing the just-released protestors who came to see me at the hospital to pay for the medications prescribed by the hospital. They refused and called the police out on it."

According to him, his brother had to give the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) money to cover part of the cost of his drugs.

"Eventually, my brother gave the CID 100 cedis to pay for part of the drugs. The other drugs prescribed were not procured. Also, they didn’t pay for the blood tests that I had to do that day. When the news broke that they didn’t pay for the drugs, they sent Momo to Priscilla, one of the arrested protestors, to reimburse the money they took from my brother," he revealed.

Barker-Vormawor further disclosed that after the news broke that the police couldn’t pay for his bills, they sent mobile money to one of the protestors.

"We are also ready to share the receipt of the Momo transaction, where they paid back the money. Oliver was in fact returned to the cell without the other medication being purchased. The next day, as early as 4 a.m., one CID officer came to my cell to accost me and scream profanities at me over the fact that the protestors had made their inability to procure medicines public. I ignored him."

He added that the police later paid for part of the other prescribed drugs when he returned to the hospital the next day. "That’s when part of the other drugs were paid for by the police. After the fact, not before," he noted.

Barker-Vormawor challenged the police to share the receipts of the prescribed drugs they claimed to have bought for him, granting his consent for them to release this information.

"It is routine for the police to take several suspects to the hospital only to return without their prescribed drugs," he said, adding that he had personally purchased drugs for another inmate the previous day.

He emphasized that these issues are systemic, saying, "These issues are routine and systemic."

The police, in a statement on October 11, 2024, insisted that they had fully covered all medical expenses incurred during Barker-Vormawor's hospital visit, as per their Standard Operating Procedures for suspects in custody. They, however, noted that they could not release specific details due to doctor-patient confidentiality.

They also refuted claims that Barker-Vormawor had been rushed to the hospital, describing such reports as baseless and urging the public to disregard them.

Barker-Vormawor remains in custody after the court refused to grant him bail following his arrest along with 52 other protestors for unlawful assembly, causing unlawful damage, offensive conduct conducive to the breach of peace, assault on a public officer, and defacement of public property during a protest over illegal mining activities, popularly known as galamsey, in the country.

Read his post below:

Yes I can confirm the Ghana Police Service took me to the hospital and couldn’t pay for my drugs and medical tests.

On the first day, they kept harassing the just released protestors who came to see me at the Hospital to pay for the medications prescribed by the Hospital. They…

— Osagyefo Oliver Barker-Vormawor (@barkervogues) October 14, 2024