3 petition CHRAJ to probe Acting CID boss

Three Directors of Governance Watch, in their individual capacities as citizens of Ghana, have jointly petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), to investigate ACP Mrs Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo Danquah, the Acting Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service.

The petition is in relation to a leaked tape in connection to allegations of corruption and thievery involving the two Deputy Chiefs of Staff, Abu Jinapor and Asenso-Boakye, by one Kwame Asare Obeng, also known as A-Plus, referred to her office for investigation.

In that audiotape, a female interlocutor is heard telling a male character on the other end of the line that: “…As for the corruption aspect of it, from what you said and what we’ve gone to confirm, you wouldn’t be too far from right to say that this is what happened, but we need to manage… the people are your people. We need to find the best way to ensure that Korle Bu works the way we all want it to work.

“You need somebody who’ll be neutral to tell them exactly what is there for them to understand and I wish I could have an audience with the President himself because it looks like most of the things don’t get to him…yes I feel sad for him. I feel he has good intentions but he’s not going to achieve it.”

It will be recalled that ACP Danquah issued a statement denying categorically, the content of the tape and admitted that even though she had had engagements with A-Plus during the investigations some of which were via telephone, the leaked audio was doctored.

The three individual Directors of Governance Watch who double as petitioners, Mr Stephen Kwabena Attuh, Executive Director; Mr Fred Adomako Williams, Deputy Executive Director and Mr Nii Adottey Michell, Executive Secretary, believe that there is the need to investigate the professional conduct of ACP Danquah as her actions, if proven to be true, would have brought the name of the Ghana Police Service into disrepute.

In a petition to CHRAJ, copied to the Police Council and the media, the three are invoking the Commission's powers under Article 218(a) of the 1992 Constitution as well as Article 7(1)(i) of the CHRAJ Act of 1993, Act 456, to establish whether or not the conduct of ACP Danquah amounts to abuse of power, corruption and perversion of justice.

Read below, the full text of the petition submitted to CHRAJ.

23/10/2017 The Commissioner, CHRAJ Old Parliament House Accra – Ghana

PETITION TO THE COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND ADMINISTRATIVE JUSTICE (CHRAJ) TO INVESTIGATE MRS. MAAME YAA TIWAA ADDO DANQUAH (ACP), ACTING DIRECTOR OF THE CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS DEPARTMENT OF THE GHANA POLICE SERVICE

We write in our capacity as citizens of the Republic of Ghana invoking the powers of this Commission under Article 218(a) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana and section 7(1)(i) of the CHRAJ Act 1993 (Act 456), as amended, which states “to investigate complaints of violations of fundamental rights and freedoms, injustice, corruption, abuse of power and unfair treatment of any person by a public officer in the exercise of his official duties”, to investigate a case of professional misconduct bothering on official corruption and corruption-related activities involving ACP Mrs. Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo Danquah, the current acting Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service.

Our petition is grounded on an audio recording in the public domain (copy attached to this petition) which contains the voices of the said ACP Addo Danquah and one Kwame Asare Obeng also known as A-Plus who will be referred to as A-Plus for the purposes of this petition, which we believe has brought the professional integrity of the Ghana Police Service into disrepute.

In the audio which is in the public domain, ACP Addo Danquah is heard, allegedly, informing the complainant, A-Plus, to withdraw the obviously damning aspects of his allegations he made against the two deputy Chiefs of Staff, Mr. Abu Jinapor and Asenso Boakye in order to limit the effects of the outcome of the investigations referred to her outfit since they are “all from the same stock”.

On the 27th of August, 2017, A-Plus made allegations of corruption and thievery against the two deputy Chiefs of Staff, Messrs Francis Asenso-Boakye and Samuel Abu Jinapor.

Subsequently, the police, in their report released to the public on the 18th of September, 2017, concluded among others as follows:

"(a)... A-Plus, made allegations of corruption and thievery against Messrs Asenso-Boakye and Jinapor on his Facebook post.

(b) That the allegations of thievery was dropped by A-Plus but that of corruption was maintained.

(c) That following a petition by Unibank Ghana Limited to the effect that the management of Korle-bu had abrogated an existing MoU with them without any reason and that Korle-bu had not treated them fairly, Messrs Asenso-Boakye and Jinapor among others intervened to seek clarity from the hospital's management regarding the said petition.

(d) That their intervention was transparent, born out of the protection of public interest and consistent with their duties as Chiefs of Staff."

As a result, the report from the Ghana Police Service concludes among other things "... the allegations of corruption was found to be baseless, unsubstantiated and without credibility".

Subsequently, an audio recording was released into the public domain which is purported to contain the voices of A-Plus and ACP Mrs Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo Danquah. In that audio, it was revealed that ACP Mrs Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo Danquah informed the complainant, A-Plus, to pass by in order to withdraw parts of his allegations.

The audio transcript in part, is as follows:

ACP. Addo Danquah: Ok, ok. So can you. That is what I want you to say, that this is what you stated, but you are aware that there are people pretending to be you who are also posting things. But they are not yours so that we have it on record.

A-Plus: Yeah, yeah, ok, ok.

ACP. Addo Danquah: That aspect was denied. As for the corruption aspect of it, from what you said and what we have gone to confirm, you wouldn't be too far from right to say that this is what happened.

A-Plus: Mmmm, hmmmm

ACP. Addo Danquah: But we need to manage. The people are your people oo. We need to find the best way to make sure that Korle-bu works the way we all want it to work

Upon the emergence of that audio recording on the 28th of September, 2017 or thereabout, ACP. Mrs Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo Danquah issued a statement admitting having had conversations with A-Plus, but denied the audio in part and alleges doctoring of her voice on the audio. In paragraphs 3 and 7 of her release, she states: "In the course of the investigations, I had series of discussions relating to the subject matter with A-Plus, some of which were via telephone. I have listened to the purported telephone conversation between myself and A-Plus many times, and it is obvious that my conversation with him has been doctored and/or edited to achieve a deliberate, mischievous and evil purpose.”

From her statement issued to the public, ACP Addo Danquah has not denied that the voice on the tape is hers. In fact, she accepts that the voice is hers.

We make the following claims:

1. That based on the coversation she has had with A-Plus as contained in the audio, in line 5 . transcribed above, she was influencing the complainant to supress the evidence which she has confirmed from her visit to Korle-bu.

2. That in line 5, ACP Addo Danquah specifically went further in her attempt to lead the complainant in a predetermined direction of clearing the accused deputy Chiefs of Staff by telling him that "The people are your people oo. We need to find the best way to make sure that Korle-bu works the way we all want it to work". What she has done in this statement is clearly to make the complainant backdown on his allegations of corruption in the light of the fact that she personally confirmed conrruption in line 3 of the transcript above.

From the foregoing, we are strongly of the humble opinion that the conduct of ACP Mrs. Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo Danquah amounts to abuse of power, corruption and perversion of justice.

By this petition, we humbly request your noble Commission to launch a full-scale investigation into this matter in line with your mandate under article 218(a) of the 1992 Constitution and section 7(1) (i) of the Act 456, 1993 as amended and to establish whether or not the conduct of ACP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo Danquah in question, amounts to abuse of office, corruption and perversion of justice.

We respectfully wish to indicate our preparedness to co-operate with the Commission in its line of duty in investigating this matter brought before it to its logical conclusion.

Please find enclosed all relevant documents: a copy of the said audio, a transcript of the audio recording, a copy of the report released by the police to the public on the outcome of its investigations and a copy of the release by ACP. Mrs. Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo Danquah after the audio recording was released into the public for your attention.

Respectfully submitted.

Yours faithfully, ………………………………………. Stephen Kwabena Attuh ……………………………………….. Adomako Fred Williams ……………………....................... Nii Adottey Michell Cc: The Police Council The Media