Member of Parliament for North Tongu Constituency Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has disclosed how the Minority in Parliament was ready to confront the Minister of Interior, Ambrose Dery, after his initial response on the leaked tape of some senior officers seeking to get the Inspector General of Police (IGP) removed from office.
After the tape was leaked, Mr Dery, who is also the MP for Nandom Constituency, dismissed the content and insisted there was no plot to remove Dr George Akuffo Dampare as IGP.
“There is no plot to remove anybody,” the Interior Minister told journalists in Accra on Tuesday, July 11.
“I can assure you that I serve a president who is committed and has respect for human rights,” he added.
“Under Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, we will make sure that 2024 is peaceful. One thing to be sure, 2024 will not be a violent election by anybody and no one will want to thwart the will of the people. If you vote us in, you vote us in, if you vote us out, you vote us out.”
But speaking on The Keypoints on Saturday, July 15, Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa said it was after the Minority took issue with the Interior Minister’s response to journalists that he changed the narrative.
“His earlier response was not good,” the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP said, citing how Mr Dery “said that he doesn’t see any criminality on the tape when he met the parliamentary press corps”.
“So, we took him on in Parliament.”
For him, it has to take the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, as the boss of the minister to make a definite statement on the matter, once and for all.
“The Interior Minister did double speaking, earlier seeking to downplay [and] treat the tape with some contempt, then later the next day in Parliament now adopting the right posture.
“So, that flip flop approach, we don’t know which one really is coming from his boss. So, his boss himself must speak and give assurance but it should be without prejudice to what Parliament is going to do.”
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has since set up a seven-member committee to probe the matter.
Three members each will come from both the Majority and Minority sides and the seventh member will be a technical person.
The Speaker gave one week for the names to be submitted.