The Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah, has rubbished assertions by some political parties that a new Inspector-General of Police (IGP) can help them or their opponents win elections.
He said no IGP can help a particular party win elections in Ghana.
Mr Braimah was speaking in the wake of a leaked audio tape that captures some senior officials of the Ghana Police Service and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) purported to be plotting to remove the current IGP, Dr George Akuffo Dampare, for being bias against the ruling party.
According to the voices in the leaked audio, Dr Akuffo Dampare has been promised his job by former President John Dramani Mahama and so he is scheming to help return the National Democratic Congress’ flagbearer to power in 2024.
The discussants in the leaked tape, therefore, urged President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to take immediate steps to change Dr Akuffo Dampare before the 2024 polls.
This has raised concerns among the NDC with the Minority in Parliament demanding a probe into the tape.
But speaking on Ghana Tonight on TV3 on Wednesday, July 12, the Executive Director of MFWA said at the turn of the century, most presidential candidates have won elections in the tenure of an IGP they did not appoint.
He cited how former President John Agyekum Kufuor won in the tenure of an IGP appointed by late President Jerry John Rawlings, how late President Professor John Evans Atta Mills won in the tenure of an IGP appointed by Mr Kufuor and how in 2016 Nana Akufo-Addo won in the tenure of an IGP, John Kudalor, appointed that same year by John Dramani Mahama.
“So, there is no basis to talk about an IGP helping a particular party to win an election,” he stressed.
“For me, an IGP doesn’t conduct elections, an IGP is not a Polling Station Officer, an IGP doesn’t deploy police officers, Presiding Officers or Collation Officers.
“So, political parties must focus on doing the right thing and leave partisanship that we are witnessing in this to pass.”