One of the claimed police officers named in a video purportedly recording a conspiracy to have Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, IGP, removed, Commissioner of Police George Alex Mensah, declared on Thursday that the audio is not real.
The Commissioner of Police (COP), formerly the Director General in Charge of Technical, testified before the seven-member bipartisan Committee looking into the secret recording that the tape had been edited and did not accurately reflect the content of the initial conversation between him and Mr Daniel Bugri Naabu, the first witness.
“I can hear a voice that resembles my voice, but I cannot say it is mine because the tape is edited.
“There was no plan to remove the IGP, the tape circulating has been strongly edited,” COP Mensah said.
COP Mensah told the Committee that “the tape played today, to me, was an edited tape, I have not heard any unedited tape for me to talk about as I sit here.”
“The tape that I heard today, there are so many things in that tape that I don’t remember and there are so many things that we discussed that are not on the tape. I have met Bugri Naabu four times, and we have discussed many things some of them private things that I am not ready to discuss in public,” he said.
He claimed to have met Mr. Naabu, the Paramount Chief of Namong in the North East Region of the Mamprugu Kingdom, at that meeting; however, he did not recall discussing any plans to depose the Inspector General of Police (IGP), as he never does.
A leaked audio tape dated Tuesday, July 11, 2023, purportedly included a Police Commissioner and a politician outlining a scheme to unseat IGP Dampare.
Consequently. On Tuesday, July 25, 2023, Mr. Alban Sumana Kingsford Baabin, Speaker of the House, established a seven-member bipartisan Committee to investigate a covert recording of an alleged attempt to unseat Dr. Dampare, IGP before the 2024 general election.
The Committee is made up of a technical expert, three members from each of the Majority and Minority sides of Parliament, and has until September 10, 2023, to present its findings to the House.
The committee is chaired by Mr Samuel Atta Akyea, 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.
Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto Mr Francis Addai Nimoh | Mr Boakye Agyarko Mr Kwabena Agyepong | 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. Mr Kwadwo Poku Mr Joe Ghartey While Dr Isaac Lartey Annang, a lawyer and a human rights activist, is a technical person appointed by Mr Bagbin.
