Nana Darkwa, the opposition party sympathizer who was remanded for allegedly implicating Ghana’s former president Jerry John Rawlings in a fire that gutted his (Rawlings’) own house was granted bail by an Accra High Court, following an application to that effect by his counsel.
Elated, Kwame Akuffo, Darkwa’s lawyer told Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) that his client was admitted into bail in the sum of 400 GH Cedis (about US$ 278) and one surety to reappear on a later date.
Darkwa, who is said to be a sympathiser of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), was arrested at the prompting of Kofi Adams, special aide to the former president, following allegations he made on a newspaper review programme on Top Radio, a privately-owned Accra-based radio station that the former president deliberately set fire to his house on February 14 in order to be relocated.
According to Adams “the gentleman made a categorical statement that the former president burnt his house and dared me, his spokesperson, to come and challenge him, and that he is aware that the former president burnt his house,” he told an Accra-based Joy FM private radio station.
Darkwa was charged with “publishing false information with the intent of causing public harm”, a charge under Article 208 of the country’s Criminal Code.