The Director of the Africa Office of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) has called for an independent fact-finding body to take over investigations of the alleged planting of weed and cocaine in a vehicle of a motorist by some policemen.
In an audio aired on Joy FM’s Midday News on Thursday, Mina Mensah said the Police cannot be investigating themselves.
“From where I sit, it is an issue of the Police’s words against the suspect’s word and in situations like that, it is better for a neutral person to investigate.
“Who knows what happened? And so even if the Police investigate the whole issue and come out and exonerate the Policemen because that is what the truth is… the credibility of the Police is not as good as it ought to be,” she said.
It would be recalled that social media has in the last few days been awash with an audio recording of a person, claiming to be Dr. Patrick Asiedu, levelling the allegation that Policemen asked to search his vehicle and claimed they found the illicit drugs in it.
They then asked him to pay GHC20,000 to be set free. After refusing, he was taken to a Police Station where he gave his statement and later to the Narcotics Control Board.
But in a press statement announcing the arrest, the Police says investigations revealed that the story is false and a total fabrication.
The Police stated that their investigations so far have established that the man, who has since been arrested, is indeed called Patrick Asiedu. He is, however, an Uber driver and not a doctor.
They added that “the supposed military intervention and the alleged fight between the Police officers and the military described in such dramatic detail in the audio tape are all false and a figment of the suspect’s imagination.
“Equally false are the vivid descriptions of having been taken to the Accra Central and East Legon Police Stations as well as the Narcotics Control Commission. The claims of fingerprints being taken are all also untrue.”
Patrick Asiedu, the suspect, however, alleged that he once witnessed a similar incident.
Meanwhile, in another audio tape that has come to the attention of the Police, the suspect alleged he had met with the Inspector-General of Police.
“We wish to categorically state that this claim is also false and should be disregarded,” the Police said.