A United Nations? (UN) report on the allegation of extortion of monies by top police officers and government officials from the Ghanaian police contingent in Kosovo, has revealed how four Ghanaian police personnel were allegedly set up by a UN Security officer, Jimmy Attengdem, based on ?personal? issues.
The four officers (names withheld), two of whom are currently at large since they completed their mission in Kosovo, were further accused of unprofessional behavior for allegedly posting the allegation on the Ghanaweb ( READ ).
?Officer Attengdem as a Ghanaian had a prior bad relationship with the accused officers that were based on some ?personal? issues,? UN investigator Eyas Mahadeen said in the report and recommended that action be taken against the officer.
The report was based on an earlier one filed by Attengdem in connection with the allegation that top government officials were extorting monies from the contingent.
The report did not mention whether or not the monies were extorted from the Ghanaian Police Contingent in Kosovo but was intended to find the source of the article that appeared on the Ghanaweb.
?I interviewed Officer Attengdem in MHQ (Mission Headquarters) in the office of Chief of Internal Investigations Paul King, who was also present during the interview,? Mahadeen said.
According to the report, Attengdem who said his investigation into the allegation had established that two of the four officers were the source of the allegation against top government officials in Ghana, asked them to retract the story, and put the source as ?concerned police officers? rather than ?UN worker?.
Mahadeen said one of the officers told him in an interview that a day after Attengdem invited them to his office and told them to retract the story and put the source as ?concerned police officers? rather than ?UN worker?, he invited one of them again to his office and asked his special assistant to make copies of his ID card, but never interviewed him.
The next day, the report said, Attengdem again invited the officer to his office, where one UN Security staff member with a camera, accompanied him to the second floor of the UN building where the exchanges were said to have taken place.
Attengdem then asked the officer to point to a computer and while pointing he was photographed by the Security staff. Thereafter, Attengdem asked the officer to make a statement.
In January 2003, articles regarding the extortion of money by proxy from the Ghanaian Police Contingent on peacekeeping mission in Kosovo were published on the Ghanaweb.
The matter was accordingly brought to the attention of UN Security at Prizren Region in Kosovo through an anonymous phone call on January 8, 2003, according to the UN report.
The caller, the report said, stated that UN Personal Computers (PCs) and Internet facilities in Prizren Region were utilized to publish the said articles.
The report said Attengdem investigated the matter and established that two of the four accused officers were responsible for publishing the articles using the UN PCs.
The matter was referred to the UN mission in Kosovo?s Internal Investigations for further action. In an additional investigation, which was initiated based on the information Officer Attengdem provided in his report, it was revealed that his allegation against the accused officers was based on inaccurate facts.
The report quoted Attengdem to have said that he focused his investigations on the computers located in the corridors of Prizren UNMIK HQ building and also monitored the computers in the police stations within the region where Ghanaian officers were assigned.
Attengdem, the report went on, said he was assisted by an IT Technician, Werner De Klerk and that close observation of the mentioned computers in addition to an after hour security checklist were met.
He said from this investigation, the IT technician managed to identify the four Ghanaian officers involved in the corresponding with Ghanaweb.
Two of the officers were cleared of any wrong doing when the computers they used were examined.
However, De Klerk, who was said in the report to have assisted Attengdem in his investigation, stated that in general purpose PCs, where everybody has access, it was impossible to prove that somebody posted anything unless there was an eye witness.
A group of aggrieved police personnel have allegedly pointed to Mr. J. Boakye-Appiah, Police Welfare Commissioner as the one who is doing everything possible to change the investigation into an extortion issue because he was one of the alleged beneficiaries.
But Mr. Boakye-Appiah has denied any knowledge about the extortion saying when the news broke out he was not in the country.
He advised The Chronicle to obtain the Police Council?s report because it would say whether he was involved or not.
Meanwhile, the Police Council is yet to come out with a release on its findings as promised by its Chairman, Mr. B.J. da Rocha.
