A member of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) communications team, Benjamin Gyewu Appiah, has revealed that President Akufo-Addo has full faith in the leadership of IGP Dampare in the Police Service.

According to him, the leaked audio which reveals a plot by a top police officer and a member of the New Patriotic Party to remove the IGP from office to enable the government rig the 2024 general election, is not from the any member of government or the party.

He indicated that he is not surprised about the leaked video because the persons who are responsible for the audio are “people who are very deceptive, who have tricks under their sleeve all the time”.

Mr Appiah stated that President Akufo-Addo trusts in the competence of IGP Dampare as is he somebody that is willing to do the job and can deliver.

“President Akufo-Addo has full faith in this IGP. In fact, if you ask the ordinary Ghanaian, he will tell you that this current IGP has brought so much glory to the Police Service. He has made the Police Service a very attractive Service in the security sector, and that is the stand of our government and party.”
Benjamin Gyewu Appiah

Also, Mr Appiah noted that per the current African ranking, Ghana has won the second most peaceful country, and this is a reflection of the good works of the IGP, and for that matter, the NPP has no reason to desire his removal.

Furthermore, Mr Appiah alleged that the NDC is behind the leaked audio and that if the NPP was in anyway involved, IGP Dampare wouldn’t have been appointed considering the fact that he served as a security personnel to late President Atta Mills.

“Did you know Dampare was the personal security of Prof Atta Mills provided by the state? So, in any case, by appointment, if the President felt that IGP Dampare was an NDC member, would he have gotten the appointment? This man served President Mills. But the President clearly has shown that he is capable of working with anybody regardless of your affiliation…
“We have no time for this kind of audio knowing the people we are dealing with… We know the tricks that they used in 2007/2008… I wouldn’t be shocked if the [NDC is responsible] because I know what they can do.”
Benjamin Gyewu Appiah

Leaked audio deemed reprehensible

On his part, Security analyst, Dr Adam Bonaa, has described the leaked audio as very “worrying, reprehensible and regrettable”.

He revealed that considering the architecture of Ghana’s electoral process and that of internal security, when it comes to the latter, the foremost agency is the Ghana Police Service and also “if you’re talking about seniority in the Ghana Police Service, if you are going beyond COP, then it is IGP or deputy IGP”.

“So, to have a COP, a superintendent of police and a few others in active service plotting to unseat one of their own, in this unethical and reprehensible way by literally speaking and planning in a manner that will be injurious to the unity and the peace we have enjoyed in the country [is bad]. The funny thing is that, can you imagine a superintendent of police actually saying the President doesn’t have a listening ear because they tried to get the President to unseat their own colleague, and the only way is to get other persons to help them…”
Dr Adam Bonaa

Commenting on who the persons in the audio are, Dr Bonaa stated that one of the men has been identified as COP Mensah. With this, he indicated that he is sure his face has been paraded all over social media.

“What I have seen and what I have watched, I have some of these information in video and I have about three hours of information of these people ganging up. So, when I hear people talking about artificial intelligence, if probably there was anything of the sort and this was not true, I’m sure these persons are people within the security circles…”
Dr Adam Bonaa

Furthermore, Dr Bonaa expressed the “regrettable” nature in which these professional police officers conducted themselves. He explained that in any case, it is good the interior minister has distanced the President and government from the audio.

“I think is right because these guys actually said the President said he is not going to do such a thing. So, some of us will actually call for a probe… What is out there is a tip of the iceberg, what is not out there is a matter of national security concern. I’m sure anyone who has in his custody what has not gone out there should continue to keep it, so that if there’s supposed to be any inquiry, it can be done in closed doors…”
Dr Adam Bonaa