IGP, Dr. George Akuffo-Dampare
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr. George Akuffo-Dampare, is expected to appear before the parliamentary committee probing the leaked audio tape of a purported plot to get him out of office.
Chairman of the ad hoc committee, Samuel Atta Akyea, who revealed this, stated that the committee has invited the IGP to appear before it today, Tuesday, September 12.
In an interview with Accra-based JoyNews, Mr. Atta Akyea disclosed that the invitation is to allow the IGP to be heard by the committee due to serious allegations levelled against him (Akuffo-Dampare).
According to him, the meeting with the IGP will feature all the witnesses, namely Chief Daniel Bugri Naabu, Supt. George L. Asare, COP George Alex Mensah, and Supt. Emmanuel Eric Gyebi, and their lawyers.
“The most prominent person whose name has been bandied about, the IGP himself, should also come with his lawyers,” Mr. Atta Akyea noted.
Mr. Akyea emphasised that the democratic approach to solving the problem is to give the IGP a chance to clear his name.
He pointed out that the committee’s encounter with the IGP would be done in-camera, explaining that there were issues in the hearing that needed to be prevented from coming out in the public to protect national security.
“Some serious allegations have been made in public, but the substance of the allegations has not been made in public. That is to say, the evidential support for those allegations is what we are going to unearth.
“So which piece of evidence that we’ll give to the public that will not hurt national security? We will exercise that discretion,” he asserted.
The Committee Chairman dismissed suggestions that Dr. Akuffo-Dampare would decline the invitation.
“I don’t believe it will [happen] that the IGP will say that I am not going to come to Parliament when he has a whole opportunity to hallow his name,” Mr. Atta Akyea, who is also the MP for Abuakwa South, intimated.
The Committee Chairman said the probe was not an avenue to maliciously ruin reputations or a forum for the consideration of appointing an IGP.
It is not proper, in his opinion, for the committee to allow the IGP to be shamed and abused without providing him a hearing.
He added, “I think when it’s necessary for the public to come into space, why not? But when it is frightening that what is ongoing is not good for national security, then we have to shut the public out.”
Allegations
The IGP’s name was mentioned by witnesses who testified before the committee amid severe allegations of gagging police personnel and granting contracts to cronies.
For instance, COP Mensah, former Director-General Technical of the Ghana Police Service, told the parliamentary committee that Dr. Akuffo-Dampare is the worst IGP the country has ever had, noting that the service is heading in the wrong path with him at the helm of affairs.
According to him, Dr. Akuffo-Dampare has also gagged police officers, including the service’s Public Affairs Directorate, and that many of the officers were dissatisfied with his management of the service.
He claimed that Dr. Akuffo-Dampare did not even permit the service’s Public Affairs Directorate to carry out its responsibilities as required.
“As I have said earlier, the current IGP is not managing the Service well because now he has shut the mouth of every police officer, including the Public Affairs Director,” he stressed.
“Honourable chair, what I said yesterday, if you give me the opportunity today, I will say it again. For me, for the 31 years I have been in the Service, he [Dr. Akuffo-Dampare] is the worst IGP ever,” he retorted to a question.
The embattled senior police officer also accused the IGP of masterminding the recording of the audio, and urged the parliamentary committee to call the IGP before it to demand the original tape since the one the committee was dealing with was doctored.
“Mr. Chairman, my intel [intelligence] suggests that what was used to tape the conversation was done by the current IGP. He sent some people to do it and after which he went for it. So the tape, from my intel, is with the IGP and he caused it to be leaked.
“So if this committee wants the [original] tape, the right person to call before this committee is the Inspector General of Police,” he suggested when he appeared before the committee.
Boots Contract
Supt. George Asare, on the other hand, also said the former Northern Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Daniel Bugri Naabu, conspired with the IGP, Dr. Akuffo-Dampare, to set them up because the two have excellent business relationship, with the latter awarding the former a contract for 40,000 police boots.
Supt. Asare told the ad hoc committee that he had both audio and video recordings of the former NPP Northern Regional Chairman and the IGP about their collaborations and deals, including contracts.
Bugri Naabu
Earlier on, Mr. Naabu, who is the Paramount Chief of Namong in the North East Region under the skin-name Namong Daan II, told the MPs at the first sitting of the committee 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.
By Ernest Kofi Adu