The Vice Chairman of the special parliamentary committee probing the leaked tape on the plot to remove the Inspector General of Police, James Agalga, says their work is done and expected to be submitted to Parliament in the coming days.
According to him, the report is at a draft stage, awaiting validation by members before being handed over.
He clarified that the 2024 budget and other responsibilities in Parliament prevented committee members from reconvening to finalize the report as the standing orders of Parliament stipulate.
The Ranking Member of the Defence and Interior Committee emphasized that the committee will convene to adopt the report once members are done with the budget estimates.
His comment comes after a non-partisan group on Thursday, December 14, 2023, called for an update on the report by the ad-hoc committee.
“The committee has concluded the investigations, and we have a draft report that is yet to be considered by all the members of the committee because, per the Standing Orders, draft reports are subject to approval by the members of the committee, so that is what is outstanding”.
“Unfortunately, we are in the budget season, and all the members are caught up in their various committees and are working on budget estimates. I had warned that there was a need for us to act expeditiously so that we could have skipped the budget season, but things did not happen that way, so we are hoping that as soon as we are done with the budget estimates, we can convene and adapt the report”.
It will be recalled that three senior police officers – COP George Alex Mensah, George Asare, and Emmanuel Gyebi, both superintendents, together with Daniel Bugri Naabu, a former Northern Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), were captured in a conversation ostensibly plotting to remove the current IGP before the 2024 general elections.
While Daniel Bugri Naabu confirmed the tape’s contents, COP Alex Mensah and Superintendent George Asare denied the accuracy of the recording, alleging that portions had been “edited.”
COP Mensah contended that the tape had been doctored and did not reflect the original conversation with former NPP Northern Regional Chairman Bugri Naabu.
Additionally, he claimed that IGP George Akuffo Dampare had political affiliations with the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), a claim the IGP has described as baseless.
Meanwhile, COP Mensah is very optimistic that he will be vindicated when the report is released by the committee.
“I will be vindicated. I know what happened. Some things on the tape are lies, what I said, I said the truth, and I will say it again anywhere, but I’m not ready to discuss it here as I said, because it’s before a committee.
“And I hope we will wait until the committee comes out with their report, then everybody will know the truth,” COP Mensah noted.