Crossfire over mysterious tape

The Ghanaian Voice says the battle lines are drawn, the stage is set and the combatants appear to have started warming up for a protracted engagement over the "Rawlings Tape".

The Voice in a front-page story, says this is the scenario portrayed as at the weekend regarding the controversial and mysterious tape and transcripts widely publicised as "Tapes from the Rawlings episode", by the "Weekend Statesman" and the "JOY FM" programme, 'Newsfile'.

The paper says following the appointment of an investigation team headed by the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Peter Nanfuri, to trace the source of the tape, which the Interior Minister earlier claimed preliminary investigations had established to be "crudely forged", Nana Akufo Addo MP for Abuakwa, at a press conference insisted that the source and contents of the tape should be thoroughly investigated.

Nana Akufo Addo is reported as saying that it would be more credible and appropriate if the proposed inquiry were handled by an independent judicial or quasi-judicial body.

This, he said, could possibly enable all aspects of the matter to be investigated and "not just the narrow issue of the alleged forged tape". The Voice says almost immediately after Nana Akufo Addo's press conference, the Interior Minister, Nii Okaija Adamafio, came out with what was seen by observers as a stern warning to all those who might be implicated in the Nanfuri investigations to co-operate in their own interest.