Lawyers for the Inspector General of Police (IGP) have denied backtracking on their claims of bias against the chairman of the parliamentary committee probing the leaked tape on the plot to remove Dr. George Akuffo Dampare from his position.
The lawyers, led by Kofi Bentil, stated that they had never withdrawn their accusations of bias against the chairman, Atta Akyea. They said that Atta Akyea’s claims to the media that they had backtracked were false and challenged him to produce evidence to support his claims.
“Based on his actions, we believe he is biased. We have said so. Many other people agree with us, and indeed we think that it is sufficiently said and dealt with, and we don’t need to do what he expects us to do in the committee room,” Bentil said in an interview with Joy FM.
He added that the committee chair’s actions had shown that he was biased, and they hoped that he would shift from that position.
Bentil also criticized Atta Akyea’s handling of the committee proceedings, noting that he had refused to call new evidence as suggested by their legal team. He said that this had led to a waste of time and resources, and had raised concerns about the fairness of the probe.
“Everything we have said and suggested has actually come to pass,” Bentil said. “The last time he said we should go and come back to hear new evidence, it was suggested to him by my senior counsel that why don’t you take the evidence and if it is serious, call us back. He said no, we should come back. We went and nothing was brought out actually. So we just went and spent the time there and walked away.”
“Now, things have been suspended, Civil Society leaders have expressed their concern, and everybody is expressing concern about how this thing is being conducted,” he continued. “We have not backtracked, we have not gone back on what we said concerning the conduct of the chairman which we do not find to be proper and appropriate.”