The seven-member committee appointed by the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin , to investigate the leaked audio involving the Anti-IGP has temporarily suspended its proceedings until Monday, October 2, 2023.
The committee’s chairman, Atta Akyea, made this announcement during a media briefing held after the session on Wednesday, September 13.
Atta Akyea disclosed that the Ad hoc committee will reconvene for hearings over five consecutive days from October 2 to October 6. Importantly, all these proceedings will be conducted in-camera.
He stated, “The committee is resuming work on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and the 6th of October, God willing. When we return, it is going to be an in-camera hearing because all the witnesses will convene with their lawyers, and they are expected to provide evidential support in relation to what they publicly disclosed.”
Background:
In the leaked audio at the heart of the parliamentary investigation, a Police Commissioner, identified as Mensa, was heard in conversation with Bugri Naabu, discussing the removal of IGP Dr. George Akuffo Dampare due to concerns that he would be too stringent in the 2024 elections.
The Police Commissioner, reportedly retiring, expressed the view that the IGP’s firmness and commitment to preventing electoral manipulation, as seen in the Assin North by-election, necessitated his removal.
“This IGP won’t help us. He won’t, he wants everything to be done fairly and we don’t win elections that way. If we don’t remove him, we can’t break the 8, in politics we need machinations and this IGP won’t allow that,” the Police Commissioner is heard saying.
