In the wake of claims about his involvement in an alleged plot to cause the removal of the Inspector General of Police, George Akuffo Dampare from office, the Director General of Operations for the Ghana Police Service, COP George Alex Mensah, has stated that there’s no bad blood between him and the IGP.
According to him, he has no personal scores to settle with the IGP except professional disagreements.
“Mr Chairman, as I sit here, I don’t have any bad blood but what I do is I speak my mind whether you like it or not.
“If you are the boss and you do what I don’t like, I tell you. You can decide to hate me for that, that is your matter,” he said.
His comment was in response to a question posed by one of the members of the committee probing the matter.
Appearing before the ad-hoc committee set up by parliament to investigate and ascertain the veracity or otherwise of a leaked tape about the supposed conspiracy on Wednesday, August 31, COP Alex Mensah accused the IGP of not managing the police well.
According to him, serving officers are unhappy with the IGP, adding that any independent investigation will affirm this claim.
“It is true; the current IGP is not managing the service well. And I will not deny this today or tomorrow. I will say it everywhere I go. You can do your own investigation within the service and you will know.”
COP Alex Mensah, who admitted to being a sympathiser of the NPP, said, “I am a politician and there is nobody here who is not a politician.”
While admitting that the voice in the leaked tape was his, he claimed it had been doctored. He also denied any to orchestrate the removal of the IGP.
The police chief, who is also a lawyer and a Chartered Accountant, said, “I remember having a conversation with Bugri Naabu. What I am saying is that this tape that was played today is an edited tape…the tape played today has so many things I don’t remember and there are things that were said that are not on the tape,” he added.
Daniel Bugri Naabu, a former Northern Regional Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) when he appeared before the committee on Monday insisted that COP George Alex Mensah is the senior police officer heard on the leaked audio.
He said his decision to record the conversation about the proposed plot was to safeguard the interest of his party [the NPP].
Mr Naabu, who confirmed the authenticity of the secret tape, indicated that his plan was to forward the tape to President Akufo-Addo to take action.
While defending his recording of the conversation, Bugri Naabu also mentioned that Commander Asare, COP Mensah and Superintendent Gyebi were the personnel who had the discussion with him about the IGP.
“The reason for recording this tape is that they are coming to tell me to go and tell the President something that they know they are saying, and it is either I don’t go and tell the President and then I and my party suffer for it, or if I also go to talk to the President, it is good to tell him the right thing, and since I cannot keep everything they were telling me at that point, it was very good to record and I know the President, that if I go and tell him something and it turns out not to be true, next time he won’t give me respect,” he explained to the Committee.
The content of the leaked tape generated a national discussion considering the nature of the conversation with senior police officers involved.
Following public reaction, Parliament set up the Committee, chaired by the Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South, Samuel Atta-Akyea, to delve into the issue.
The panel has the mandate to investigate both the authenticity of the leaked tape and the intricate allegations that have captured the nation’s attention.
The Committee is to submit its report on September 10.