National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah has asked for a full scale investigation into the alleged leaked secret tape which is calling for the removal of the Inspector General of Police, Dr. George Akuffo Dampare.
According to him, if the NPP government has nothing to hide then they should allow an investigation into the matter to enable those behind the despicable plot to be punished.
Speaking on Okay FM’s ‘Ade Akye Abia’ programme, he explained that though he sometimes did not agree with some of the modus operandi of the Inspector General of Police especially during the Assin North by-election, he believes that he is doing well and does not deserve to be kicked out in such a coup d’etat manner.
“What transpired on the leaked tape is a recipe for coup and that government should allow for a thorough investigation if it has nothing to hide and really want to get to the bottom of the matter.
“They should spare us the various explanations they are giving out and ensure an investigation is carried out in to the matter and gotten into its logical conclusion,” he said.
He further reiterated the need for the Vice President, Dr. Mahamoud Bawumia who is the Chairman of the Police Council to as a matter of urgency to have issued a statement about what is going on rather than going about campaigning.
“I think this is an opportune time for the Vice President who seems not to be a too proactive Chairman of the Police Council to quickly act on this matter, but he is rather busy going round campaigning whilst the Police Council is in turmoil over a leaked secret tape.”
Interior Minister Dismisses Allegation
Meanwhile, the Minister of the Interior, Ambrose Dery, has dismissed allegation of the contents of a leaked secret tape in which the removal of the Inspector General of Police, Dr George Akuffo Dampare, is being plotted.
In the about an hour long tape, a purported police commissioner and someone who identifies himself as a former Northern Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party(NPP) were heard plotting the removal of Dr Akuffo Dampare.
The voices in the tape expressed the fear that the IGP would not allow the governing party to manipulate the 2024 elections.
“This IGP won’t help us. He won’t, he wants everything to be done fairly and we don’t win elections that way. If we don’t remove him we can’t break the eight, in politics we need machinations and this IGP won’t allow that,” the purported Police Commissioner was heard saying.
But interacting with Journalists in Parliament, Accra, he said the tape should be treated with the contempt it deserved because government has no intentions of removing the IGP from office.
According to him, government was satisfied with Dr Dampare’s administration and would give him the free hand to operate as expected of an independent police service.
“Let me make it absolutely clear that this government is not going to tamper with the 2024 elections. The President does not want to stay one more hour beyond his term. We also want to make sure that we have a free and fair election.
“So we should dismiss such reports with contempt. There’s no plot to remove anybody, as far as I’m concerned he (IGP) is doing a good job.”
