By Elsie Appiah-Osei
Accra, Aug. 29, GNA- Mr Daniel Bugri Naabu, Paramount Chief of Namong in the North East Region in the Mamprugu Kingdom has said he recorded the alleged leaked tape plotting the removal of Dr George Akuffo-Dampare, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to protect the New Patriotic Party.
Appearing before a seven-member bi-partisan Committee probing the recording told the Committee that he wanted to have enough evidence to play to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo due to the stringency of the issues being discussed with some alleged Police Officers.
He said: “The reason for recording this tape is that they are coming to tell me to go and tell the President something…and it is either I don’t go to tell the President and then I and my party suffer for it and if I also go to talk to the President, it is good to tell him the right thing and since I cannot keep everything they were telling me at that point, I had to record. I know if I go to the President and tell him something, and it turns not to be true, next time, he will not respect me,” he told the Committee on Monday during a public hearing in Parliament House.
Mr Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, the Speaker of Parliament on Tuesday, July 25, 2023, constituted a seven-member bi-partisan Committee to probe into a secret recording of an alleged plot to remove Dr George Akuffo Dampare, Inspector General of Police (IGP) from office ahead of the 2024 general election.
The Committee, which has up to September 10, 2023, to report back to the House is made up of three members each from the Majority and Minority sides of Parliament, and a technical person.
The committee is chaired by Mr Samuel Atta Akyea, the New Patriotic Party (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.
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.
While Dr Isaac Lartey Annang, a lawyer and a human rights activist, is a technical person appointed by Mr Bagbin.
Mr Naabu, also the former Northern Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and first witness mentioned “one Commander Asare, based at Police Depot, Commissioner of Police, Mensah, currently on leave prior to his retirement and Gyebi, a Police Superintendent based at the Police Headquarters whom he had never met before but spoke with on the phone as the other three” he engaged in the conversation with at his office in Osu.
He told the Committee the two senior officers approached him with an agenda to advocate for the removal of the IGP adding “The reason behind this request, as conveyed by the officers, was that Dr Akuffo Damapre’s actions were perceived to align more closely with the interests of the opposition NDC, thereby potentially undermining the ruling party’s chances in the upcoming 2024 elections,” he said.
According to him, the request by the top officers scared him, hence his decision to record them to make it difficult for any denial.
GNA