Daniel Bugri Naabu
Former Northern Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Daniel Bugri Naabu, yesterday made a startling confession, disclosing that he recorded the audio tape in connection with an alleged plot to depose the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr. George Akuffo-Dampare.
According to him, the reason was to get the information ferried to President Nana Akufo-Addo after the two top police officers, COP Asare and COP Mensah, ran to his office, making damning allegations against the IGP.
Mr. Naabu, who is the Paramount Chief of Namong in the North East Region under the skin name Namong Daan II, testified in Parliament before the seven-member committee investigating the audio tape that COP Asare introduced himself to him (chief) as a commander at the Police Headquarters in Accra.
According to him, COP Mensah, who is on a terminal leave before retiring, was also present at the meeting, and that while the meeting was going on, one Gyebi, who is also a police superintendent at the Police Headquarters, spoke to him on the phone about the same subject.
While authenticating the leaked video, he revealed that the encounter took place at his personal office in Osu, Accra, opposite the Osu Police Station.
The chief said everything said on the tape is true, and pointed out that he had never met COP Asare prior to that meeting ahead of the Assin North by-election.
“Tay Bugri, one of my children, called and said, ‘Daddy, one police officer wants me to bring him to your office.’ And I asked him for what reason?” he said.
He said the police officer indicated that they had come to see him for him to be their conveyor belt to the President, claiming that the IGP was not loyal to the government, as he was holding meetings with the leader of the opposition party, ex-President John Dramani Mahama.
“He [COP Asare] said the IGP was not good for the government and the party (NPP),” Chief Naabu, who was led in evidence by two of his counsels, Raymond Dornyoh and Gloria Amanda Dove, stated.
He alleged that COP Asare told him the NPP could not use the current IGP to ‘break the eight’.
“I asked him why and he said he is an NDC [man] and retorted that how could an NDC man become an IGP [under NPP administration]? I also asked why he waited for the man to be given the position and it is now that he is coming to talk about it,” he asserted.
Mr. Naabu told the committee that COP Asare expressed fear that the NPP would lose the 2024 general election if the IGP remained in office, claiming that he was concerned because he was a member of the party.
He narrated that COP Asare again said he had relayed the information to the President but he had not acted on it.
“They wanted me to talk to the President. He started telling me about the IGP and indicated that if the NPP government allowed the IGP to still be at post, the party would lose the election and I became scared,” he stressed.
“He challenged me to wait and see if what he had said did not come true. After hearing him out, I told him I’d go tell the President. But, I added, before I do that, I wanted to make sure that everything I was going to tell the President was true,” the chief recounted.
He stated that they organised a second meeting, and he contacted certain police officers who are members of the Police Council to double-check the information regarding the IGP, but the results were negative.
He indicated that COP Asare informed him that he had found someone better qualified and also a true party member, and that he wanted that person to succeed the current IGP.
He stated that the individual turned out to be COP Mensah, whom he had previously met, and that COP Mensah also told him numerous things about the IGP, making him more terrifying for the government.
He told the two officers that if the country had an IGP who could meet with the leader of the opposition party and get a promise that he would be retained when the NDC took power, the government was sitting on a ticking time bomb.
“I promised them I would tell the old man, and later asked them to come with me to deliver the message to the President. Commander Asare told me he was travelling, and asked that I went with one Supt. Gyebi on his behalf.
“I booked an appointment at the presidency on Sunday at 2:00pm, and this Supt. Gyebi never turned up for us to go to the President.
“The Sunday I called the Gyebi guy and asked him to meet me at Afrikiko to drive him to the President, he replied that he was in the Eastern Region for a programme,” Chief Bugri Naabu stated.
He said he became disappointed with their behaviour after telling him horrifying stories about the IGP, and therefore decided to get the information properly for the President through tape recording.
“I didn’t want to be accused of concocting things. We chiefs do not like lying. So I taped the conversation [at our second meeting],” he noted.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House