IGP tape probe: No power can coerce us to forge evidence -Atta-Akyea

The Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee probing the leaked audio, Samuel Atta Akyea, has emphatically stated that nobody is powerful enough to coerce them to forge evidence.

According to him, the committee has no ill motives to soil the integrity of any of the witnesses appearing before them to testify.

“So, please relax about what is going on and trust this committee that we are not here to shortchange anybody. There is nobody who is powerful enough to cause us to slant evidence or do something untoward to hurt anybody,” he said.

The Abuakwa South Member of Parliament (MP) said this when the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, appeared before the committee to respond to a question about the leaked audio.

His comment of assurance followed the expression of discomfort by the IGP and his Counsel, over what they described as a “prejudicial” statement from the chairman of the committee.

A member of the committee, Ophelia Mensah, MP for Mfantseman, asked the IGP how he felt about the allegations from the police officers that he masterminded the recording.

In his response, Dr. Dampare noted that he felt bad as he is human, but his Christian values compelled him to forgive easily, and he would not hesitate to help his accusers “because that is the teaching of the Bible.”

DISCOMFORT

The Chairman of the Committee, Atta Akyea, opined that the forgiveness of the IGP could wait until the outcome of the probe.

He explained that the police boss did not know the evidence of his officers against him and thus would be better off holding his horses to appraise all the missiles to be unearthed in camera and then decide.

He said, “Inspector General of Police, I thought your forgiveness would abide by the outcome of the investigations because you don’t know the full extent of what they have against you. So, why are you forgiving so early?

He continued that, “Because I was thinking that IG will hold his horses and then what is going to happen is that when we recline and we retire, and the evidence is being unearthed in-camera, and then he will determine, in the face of what some people will say, or will not say, that large heart of forgiveness will continue to work or not.”

REACTION

Counsel for the IGP, Lawyer Kwame Gyan, drew the attention of the chairman, Atta Akyea, to the comment, after which his client, Dr. Dampare, also spoke to it.

They told the committee that the comment portrayed that a “quantum of missiles” was awaiting them in conclave and for that, “I should suspend my forgiveness to them.”

“Hon chair, as far as I am concerned, with the clearest of conscience and with my belief in God, I know that there is nothing anywhere against me. And if there is anything like that, those who have put it together should think twice, but whatever it is, I stand by my forgiveness to them and I will not change because that is what the Lord God that I serve has made me to understand. I thank you,” Dampare told the committee.

Meanwhile, the transcript of a section of proceedings is contained in today’s publication of the paper.