IGP leaked audio probe should’ve been held in-camera – Major Derrick Oduro

Former Deputy Defence Minister, Major (Rtd) Derrick Oduro says the ongoing inquiry by a parliamentary ad-hoc committee into allegations of a ploy to oust the Inspector General of Police, Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, should have been conducted in-camera, away from the eyes of the public.

Major Oduro argued that some of the issues emanating from the probe are sensitive and can injure public security hence his remarks.

“I thought it was going to be an administrative inquiry so that some of these things don’t come out. This should have been done in-camera because some security issues would have come up and protected if it was in-camera. It is not the best that a sitting IGP is being chastised this publicly, it is not the best,” Major Oduro told Umaru Sanda Amadu on Eyewitness News on Citi FM on Friday, September 1, 2023.

The former Deputy Defence Minister also emphasized that some of the comments made by the outgoing Director General, Technical of the Ghana Police Service, COP George Mensah undermine the mandate given to the IGP.

“The president during the swearing-in of the IGP admonished him not to be a party IGP and that is exactly what this IGP is doing. So if it comes out that his works are not being appreciated by his own people, that is something that we should be worried about.”

“What is being said at the Committee can go a long way to harm public security and so this is a probe that should have been done without even allowing in the media. All the sensitive information and issues that emanated from the sitting should not have come out and this should not be repeated.”