By Eric Appah Marfo
Accra, July 15, GNA — Mr Martin A. B. K. Amidu, the former Special Prosecutor, says a leaked tape alleging plots to oust Mr George Akuffo Dampare, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), is an attempt to divert the attention of opposition political parties from likely relaxation of security during the 2024 elections by the Police.
“The leakage of the tape recording has achieved its objective because the NDC in particular, other opposition political parties, and security and intelligence operatives have diverted their attention to defending and extolling the virtues and perceived neutrality of the IGP,” he said.
Mr Amidu in a write up on the leaked tape, alleged that the recording of the conversation was planned and that the decision to leak the tape was made by political collaborators, who saw it as a perfect tool for the diversion of the attention of opposition political parties from the likelihood of a relaxation of security supervision of the 2024 elections.
The tape, which leaked on Tuesday July 11, is said to involve a high-profile police commissioner and some leaders of the governing New Patriotic Party, who were allegedly scheming to oust the IGP.
According to the tape, the plotters believed Dr Dampare could be a “stumbling block” to the Party’s cause towards winning the 2024 election.
The Government, through the Minister of the Interior, Mr Ambrose Derry, earlier denied the allegations, describing the leaked tape as “baseless”.
Mr Amidu said the tape was leaked though the collaborators knew that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had confidence in the IGP and would not remove him from office a few months to the 2024 elections.
He said IGPs did not win elections and could scarcely influence the polls, however, what an IGP could and might do was to position Regional, Divisional, District, and Station Commanders, who would control his men, at the polls and relax their security alertness and surveillance on Election Day.
Mr Amidu said even such a move in a national election was not without hazards for the IGP as some Commanders could give him out to the other side.
He said the Assin North Constituency by-election could not be used as a yardstick for measuring the neutrality of the Ghana Police Service in the coming national elections in 2024 and urged opposition parties not to concentrate
on the “smokescreen”.
“The NDC and other opposition political parties ought to make haste slowly in what they say in praise or condemnation of the IGP. Heed the warning: ‘There is no art to find the mind’s construction in the face!’”
He said free and fair elections were the life blood of any democracy adding that, the leaked tape had achieved the opposite of what it intended by alerting patriotic citizens that no matter who was IGP, everybody needed to be vigilant and ensure that the 2024 election was not “captured by any President’s long game”.
“By all means, those who wish to investigate the authenticity of the tape may do so, but at the end of the day like previous investigations nothing will come out of it.
“The vigilance of a patriotic citizenry is the truest bulwark against long games and election rigging come 2024. Let us defend the 1992 Constitution,” Mr Amidu said.
GNA