Retired Cops, MPs probe leaked IGP tape …as Amidu says voice is his former client’s

Two (2) retired police officers have been named among a Seven-member Parliamentary committee to probe the leaked tape that contained voices of some prominent persons suspected to be seeking to oust the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr. George Akuffo Dampare.

Ms Ophelia Mensah Hayford, Member of Parliament (MP) for Mfantsiman Constituency who retired from the Police Service in 2020 as a Chief Inspector with the Interpol Unit and Superintendent (Retired) Peter Lanchene Toobu, a former Executive Secretary to the Inspector General of Police, David Asante Apeatu and now Member of Parliament (MP) for Wa West are the trained officers among the committee.

It is being chaired by seasoned Lawyer and Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa South, Samuel Atta Akyea with support from James Agalga,  MP for Builsa North as the Vice Chair.

Other members are; Patrick Yaw Boamah, MP for Okaikwei Central and Eric Opoku, MP for Asunafo.

To enhance the investigation’s expertise, the committee will be joined by Dr Isaac Lartey Annan, a distinguished lawyer and human rights expert, who will lend valuable insights into the matter.

The Special Committee has been granted a deadline of September 10, 2023, to submit its comprehensive report, assuring the public that the investigation will be conducted with the utmost diligence and impartiality.

Background

On Tuesday July 11, 2023, a secret tape containing the voice a person believed to be a member of NPP Council of Elders was played on Accra-based Starr Fm where he was having a discussion with an unnamed senior police officer.

“This IGP is not correct, he won’t help us. Alhaji you have done politics, you know elections is not just… elections, sometimes mafia work is inside… and this man sitting down up there will not help our party to do anything,” the supposed Senior Police officer added.

The other believed to be Bugri Naabu corroborates his statement by responding “[it’s] not just sometimes, mafia work is inside. As for elections mafia work is involved.”

On the just-ended Assin North by-election, he said “I will talk to the chairman and the General Secretary myself… they should stay in the headquarters. They will go and see our plans and work to destroy it”

Parliament calls for probe

The matter was raised on the floor of parliament with calls for a probe in view of its delicate nature and the matters discussed thereof.

Subsequently, the speaker Right Honourable Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin on Tuesday July 25, 2023, unveiled members of the 7-member Special Committee tasked with conducting a thorough investigation into the matter.

Meanwhile Martin Amidu, the Former Special Prosecutor, has said the recent audio recording suspected to be a leaked tape which captured conversations on how to sack the Inspector General of Police is “authentic and not fake” and he personally knows and recognizes the owners of the voices on the tape, where it was recorded, why it was recorded and why it was leaked.

Mr. Amidu, in a statement he authored weeks back noted: “The 50 minutes plus leaked tape recording I listened to several times is authentic and not fake. One of the interlocutors was my client in 1980 to 1982 when I practiced law in the Northern Region whose voice I cannot miss when I hear it.

“I have been to his Accra office on the Castle road and know that while speaking to him his mobile phone is always on and he continues receiving phone calls which interrupt whatever serious discussion one is having with him. By those incoming phone calls the inexperienced are put at ease of the likelihood of being recorded”, Mr. Amidu added.

Martin Amidu, without giving any evidence to back his claim, alleged in his statement that one of the voices is that of a certain “Mr. Mensah” whom he described as a senior police officer and the other voice is that of a former Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

“What is worrying listening to the leaked tape is the fact that Mr. Mensah, a senior police officer, would lose his guard and speak in the office of a former NPP chairman unmindful of basic security and intelligence precautions on such sensitive matters. Mr. Mensah threw caution to the wind to visit his host in his office and assumed that his host was not capable of recording their conversation. A senior police officer who has served that long and is on terminal leave at the pinnacle of his career should have realized that he was being recorded when his host was being non-committal and using leading interjections to goad him to say more things against his superior, the IGP.

Amidu continued: “I am convinced that the recording of the conversation was planned and executed by the host of the office where it took place. The decision to leak that taped recording might have been made by his political collaborators who saw it as a perfect tool for the diversion of the opposition political parties from the likelihood of a relaxation of security supervision of the 2024 elections by the Ghana Police Service. The recorded tape was leaked knowing very well that the President, Nana Akufo-Addo has confidence in the IGP and would not remove him from office a few months to the 2024 elections.”