I am not biased against the IGP – Atta Akyea
Mr Samuel Atta Akyea, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee probing the alleged leaked tape plotting the removal of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr George Akuffo Dampare, Tuesday said he is not biased against the IGP.
Mr Kwame Gyan, Counsel for Dr Dampare, has said Mr Atta Akyea was treating his client unfairly.
However, addressing the media in Parliament after the day’s in-camera hearing, Mr Atta Akyea disavowed the charges against him, saying: “I’ve steered the affairs of the Committee without prejudice.”
“The word doctored I used is what did not sit well with him, but what I said is deduced from how it started. Was I not together with my committee members who afforded the IGP the best opportunity to speak to the press?”
“The same chairman who afforded the IGP, together with my committee members, the opportunity to speak is being biased?”
“This is a baseless allegation and the rest of the committee members thought that the lawyer, who accused me on radio, would be bold enough to repeat what he said, and they would have responded, but he didn’t.”
Mr Atta Akyea also explained why the Committee refused members of the Police Service Management Board into Tuesday’s in-camera hearing.
“It will not be fair for non-witnesses to be present, that was the thinking of the Committee. What’s the meaning of an in-camera? What’s the discrimination here? Why should we admit senior officers to come when they are not going to speak?”
Two witnesses appeared for the in-camera hearing today; IGP Akuffo Dampare and Superintendent George Asare.
Parliament’s seven-member bi-partisan committee, chaired by Mr Samuel Atta Akyea, a New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Abuakwa South, deputised by Mr James Agalga, a National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Builsa North, is investigating the veracity of an alleged leaked audio plotting the removal of Dr Dampare.
On Tuesday, July 11, 2023, a leaked audio recording, allegedly involving a Police Commissioner and a politician discussing a plot to remove IGP Dr Dampare from office before the 2024 general election circulated.
Consequently, the Minority Caucus in Parliament called for a probe into the matter.
Speaker Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin constituted the seven-member bi-partisan committee to authenticate the audio or otherwise and report back to Parliament on September 10, 2023, but the probe is still ongoing.
The committee is made up of three members each from the Majority and Minority sides of Parliament, and a technical person.
The members are Mr Patrick Yaw Boamah, NPP MP for Okaikoi Central; Madam Ophelia Mensah, NPP MP for Mfantseman; Mr Eric Opoku, NDC MP for Asunafo South, and Mr Peter Lanchene Toobu, NDC MP for Wa West.
Dr Isaac Lartey Annang, a Lawyer and a human rights activist, is the technical person appointed by Speaker Bagbin to assist the committee.
Source: GNA