The former director general (technical) of the Ghana Police Service, COP George Alex Mensah, has said morale is low within the police service now because most of the personnel are unhappy with the management style of the Inspector General of Police George Akuffo Dampare.
Appearing before a parliamentary committee of enquiry on Thursday (31 August), COP Mensah said although IGP Dampare is a poor manager, he is not plotting to get him out of office.
The committee is investigating a leaked tape concerning discussions about the possible removal of the IGP by three police officers and the former northern regional chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) Daniel Bugri Naabu.
“Dampare is not managing the police service well and the majority of police officers are not happy,” COP Mensah told the committee members. “You can call the police officers underground and they will tell you.”
“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’ve 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.
“I had a meeting with Bugri Naabu but I don’t remember having any plan to remove the IGP because I don’t remove IGPs,” COP Mensah said.
Tape is authentic
When he took his turn before the committee on Monday, Naabu revealed that he did the recording of the leaked tape.
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, set up a committee for a thorough forensic audit to be carried out to unravel those behind the tape.
Naabu confirmed that the conversation took place between himself and three other police officers in his office near the Osu Police Station.
He identified the voices on the tape as commander Asare, COP Mensah and Superintendent Gyebi. He told the ad-hoc committee of Parliament that the officers hatched the plot to remove the national police chief because they claim his actions were not in favour of the governing NPP and could cause the defeat of the party in the 2024 elections.
Naabu told the lawmakers that he recorded the conversation as evidence.
“The reason for recording this tape is that they are coming to tell me to go and tell the president [Nana Akufo-Addo] 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, it was very good to record, and I know the president, [if] I go and tell him something, and it turns [out] not to be true, next time he won’t give me respect,” Naabu said.
“I didn’t do it myself but I requested somebody who knows how to do the recording to come and do it for me. I didn’t use a phone I went to the mall and got this ordinary tape,” he added.
Meanwhile, the government has strongly refuted allegations of a clandestine scheme to oust the Inspector General of Police prior to the 2024 general elections.
“The government has no plan to sack the IGP and we are sure that nothing will be allowed to disturb the peace from now till 2024,” the Interior Minister Ambrose Dery said when the tape was leaked in July.
SOurce; Asaaseradio
