Chairman of the Ad hoc committee investigating the leaked tape involving IGP Akuffo Dampare, Samuel Atta Akyea, has condemned lawyers of the IGP for publicly calling him biased in his probe on the matter.
According to him, the Speaker of parliament reposed his trust in him to deliver on the mandate and that’s exactly what he is doing. He indicated that the Speaker has expressed a “vote of confidence that this is a man I believe will be a very firm referee for the benefit of what you want to unearth and come to a conclusion”.
“… I leave it to those who want to be wayward, with the greatest of respect. I’m not going to control IGP’s lawyers, I’ve said it several times. A man who truth is on his side will come into the hallowed chambers where we are, not to engage in media frenzy.”
Samuel Atta Akyea
Mr Atta Akyea lamented the allegations of perceived incompetence in handling the probe into the leaked tape on the IGP. He particularly questioned the reason behind lawyers for the IGP not being forward in addressing him but resorting to air their opinions in the public domain.
“That the man has no integrity and is bias – you couldn’t table it before him. They didn’t talk about it at all [before the committee], we didn’t have to glorify them to say it, because if they were bold, they won’t use the media. They will come before us and give us the basis for saying it.”
Samuel Atta Akyea
Addressing the media today, October 11, 2023, Mr Atta Akyea indicated that during yesterday’s in-camera session, he expressed his revulsion at the IGP’s lawyers’ posture.
He revealed that he doesn’t see why “today, as we are here, somebody will say the chairman is blocking the hierarchy from sitting on the in-camera hearing, and that is evidence of bias”.
Moreover, he revealed that he didn’t demand any apology from the lawyers, emphasizing that it wasn’t necessary to do so.
“I didn’t bother. The reason why I wouldn’t bother with some of these matters are very clear, that I’m not here to skew evidence in favor of another person. What will be the dividend to me? I don’t know what happens in the police service.”
Samuel Atta Akyea
In-camera hearing of IGP’s leaked tape indefinitely postponed
Meanwhile, the in-camera hearing sitting, which was supposed to end on October 14, has been indefinitely suspended. Touching on whether the sitting on the matter will be protracted, Mr Atta Akyea explained that it won’t be prolonged because the committee needs to look at the evidence, and most probably, start writing its report.
“Unless there are residual matters that we later discover from reading the evidence in cold print and also listening to the audio – we are going to listen to the audio tomorrow.
“All the members of the committee have been summoned here to come and listen to the audio attentively. So, we’ll begin to internalize what was said, then we’ll make our decision.”
Samuel Att Akyea
With regards to when the next sitting will be slated, Mr Atta Akyea indicated that it will depend on the outcome of the interrogation of the matters. With this, he assured that the committee will take a quality decision on it.
“If it is relevant to call somebody back, we’ll call the person back… I don’t know that we can be hurried into doing something shoddy because people will be saying that we did a shoddy job. So far as I’m concerned, nobody can talk about timelines when justice is concerned.”
Samuel Atta Akyea
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