Accra-Ghana, Aug. 31, GNA – Commissioner of Police Goerge Alex Mensah, Superintendent George L. Asare and Superintendent Emmanuel Eric Gyebi, Thursday appeared before Parliament’s seven-member bipartisan Committee probing into the secret recording of an alleged plot to remove Dr George Akuffo Dampare, IGP from office.
The three Police Officers were cited by Mr Daniel Bugri Naabu, Paramount Chief of Namong Mamprugu Kingdom in the North East Region in the Mamprugu Kingdom as the trio he engaged in the conversation with at his office in Osu on Monday when he appeared before the Committee as the first witness.
On Tuesday, July 11, 2023, a leaked audio recording, allegedly involving a Police Commissioner and a politician discussing a plot to remove Inspector General of Police Dampare from office circulated.
Consequently, Mr Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, the Speaker of Parliament on Tuesday, July 25, 2023, constituted a seven-member bi-partisan Committee to probe into a secret recording of an alleged plot to remove Dr Dampare, IGP from office ahead of the 2024 general election.
The Committee, which has up to September 10, 2023, to report back to the House is made up of three members each from the Majority and Minority sides of Parliament, and a technical person.
The committee is chaired by Mr Samuel Atta Akyea, New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa South with Mr James Agalga, a National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Builsa North as the Vice-Chairman.
It has Mr Patrick Yaw Boamah, NPP MP for Okaikwei Central; Madam Ophelia Mensah, NPP MP for Mfantseman; Mr Eric Opoku, NDC MP for Asunafo South and Mr Peter Lanchene Tuobu, NDC MP for Wa West as members of the Committee.
While Dr Isaac Lartey Annang, a lawyer and a human rights activist, is a technical person appointed by Mr Bagbin.
Mr Samuel Atta Akyea, Chairman of the Committee addressing the media in his closing remarks on Monday said three police officers whose names were mentioned during the public hearing would make an appearance on Thursday.
“Our next sitting is on Thursday. COP George Alex Mensah will appear, and Superintendent Asare and Superintendent Emmanuel Gyebi will also appear.
“The other people on the tape would be called as the issues were far-reaching and could not just end with the authentication of the tape and the things said in it by Mr Naabu,” he said.
On Monday, during his witness, Mr Naabu, also a former Northern Regional Chairman of the NPP confirmed his voice in the alleged leaked tape and cited three others he engaged in the conversation with at his office in Osu.
“The truth is that the tape is there and the voice there is my voice with the three others I spoke with,” he told the Committee.
He said: “One Commander Asare, based at Police Depot, Commissioner of Police, Mensah, currently on leave before his retirement and Gyebi, a Police Superintendent based at the Police Headquarters whom he had never met before but spoke with on the phone as the other three” he engaged in the conversation.
He told the Committee the two senior officers approached him with an agenda to advocate for the removal of the IGP adding “The reason behind this request, as conveyed by the officers, was that Dr Akuffo Damapre’s actions were perceived to align more closely with the interests of the opposition NDC, thereby potentially undermining the ruling party’s chances in the upcoming 2024 elections,” he said.
According to him, the request by the top officers scared him, hence his decision to record them to make it difficult for any denial.
Mr Akyea said the authentication of the audio by Mr Naabu, was a “positive judicial confession.”
Authentication of the audio by Mr Naabu is a “positive judicial confession.”
“This is what they call a positive judicial confession. What more do you need? A man affirms on oath that this is my voice on tape, I did the recording, and the individual voices who were with me are the following. I think that this is the basic material that we are going to work with,” he told the media in Parliament House.
