Politics
Content of Committee’s report is surprising – COP Asare’s lawyer
The lawyer for one of the officers at the centre of the leaked tape controversy aimed at ousting the IGP expressed surprise at the content of the Parliamentary Committee’s report on the issue.
Alfred Papa Darkwah, who represents Superintendent George Asare, stated that the report’s content differs significantly from what was aired on live TV and what transpired behind closed doors.
“A lot of things came up, but the committee decided to pick and choose which evidence to include in their report. That is somewhat disturbing,” he told Evans Mensah on PM Express on Monday.
He explained that the hearings were inquisitorial, not adversarial. In an inquisitorial system, committee members are actively involved, acting both as judges and prosecutors.
“They owe it to themselves to conduct a detailed investigation into all matters that transpired. Issues like extrajudicial killings and unlawful promotions were all contained in the tape. These were not external matters, so there was no need to bring witnesses to validate their authenticity.”
Darkwah disagreed with the claim that his client failed to provide evidence when given the opportunity by the Committee.
“He did not fail. The Committee failed to inform us why this individual failed. We provided evidence,” he insisted.
According to him, he brought in witnesses to support what his clients had been telling the Committee but it came to a question of “how can witnesses also call in witnesses? And was the mistake that they made because as I said, it was an inquisitorial system.”
“I brought in witness statements which were presented to the committee. The least they could have done was look through the statements and see if they were not relevant, nothing of that sort happened. They kept mute on that. And rather conveniently concluded that these individuals failed to provide evidence.”
His comment comes after the majority of Parliamentary Committee members who investigated the leaked tape saga recommended sanctions for the three officers involved.
Chaired by Abuakwa South lawmaker Samuel Atta Akyea, these members found that officers COP Alex George Mensah, Supt. George Lysander Asare, and Supt. Emmanuel Eric Gyedi had misconducted themselves, which constitutes a major offence under Police regulations.
They recommended that these officers be sanctioned according to the Police disciplinary procedure.
They requested that the House communicate its findings to the President, in line with Section 19 of the Police Service Act, 1970 (Act 350), to ensure appropriate sanctions are imposed.
“The House should communicate its findings to the President pursuant to Section 19 of the Police Service Act, 1970 (Act 350) which vests disciplinary powers in the President, to determine the appropriate sanctions for COP George Alex Mensah, Supt George Lysander Asare and Supt Eric Emmanuel Gyebi who appear to have misconducted themselves professionally by breaching among others the following: Section 17(d) of the Police Service Act, 1970 (Act 350) which states that:
“It shall be misconduct for a police officer to engage in any activity outside his official duties which is likely to involve him in political controversy or to lead to his taking improper advantage of his position in the Police Service.
“Regulation 82(1) (c) of the Police Service Regulations, 2012 (C.I 76) which states that: “It is a major offence for an officer to engage in an activity outside official duties which is likely to “Involve the officer in political controversy or lead to the officer taking improper advantage of that officer’s position in the service,” the report said.
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