COP George Alex Mensah
The Ghana Police Service’s Director General of Operations, COP George Alex Mensah, is slated to appear before the seven-member committee set up by Parliament to probe an alleged plot to depose the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr. George Akuffo-Dampare.
Chairman of the Committee, Samuel Atta Akyea, said the top senior police officer and two other officers cited in the leaked audio recorded by the former Northern Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Daniel Bugri Naabu, would appear before the ad hoc parliamentary committee on Thursday.
“Our next sitting is on Thursday. COP George Alex Mensah will appear, Superintendent Asare, and Superintendent Emmanuel Gyebi will also appear. These are the three individuals who will appear on Thursday,” Mr. Atta Akyea, who is also the Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South, told journalists after Monday’s sitting.
Mr. Naabu, who is the Paramount Chief of Namong in the North East Region under the skin-name Namong Daan II, told the MPs investigating the audio tape that COP Mensah and Supt. Asare had come to complain that the IGP was not loyal to the government because he was meeting with the leader of the opposition party, ex-President John Dramani Mahama.
According to him, the two wanted him to inform the President to remove the IGP from office since he is a member of the NDC and working against the ruling party.
He said 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 audio, 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 Supt. Asare prior to that meeting ahead of the Assin North by-election.
“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 Supt. 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 Supt. 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.
By Ernest Kofi Adu