Police couldn’t have pronounced us guilty without hearing us – Jinapor

A Deputy Chief of Staff, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has said he has no reason to disbelieve the position of the Deputy Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), ACP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah (Mrs), that a leaked tape that captures her voice and that of musician, Kwame Asare aka A Plus is doctored.

According to Abu Jinapor, the said audiotape couldn’t have proven he and his colleague, Francis Asenso Boakye to be corrupt as a section of the public have been made to believe.

The CID few weeks ago cleared the two Deputy Chiefs of Staff, Samuel Abu Jinapor and Francis Asenso Boakye of any wrongdoing after President Nana Akufo Addo referred a case of an allegation of corruption leveled against them for investigations.

But an audiotape which has since gone viral on social media appears to put the findings of the investigative report in doubt.

In the said audiotape, a female interlocutor who the Deputy CID Boss, has admitted was her is heard telling a male character which is believed be A Plus, on the other side 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.”

But ACP Addo-Danquah has said the tape was doctored.

Speaking on Joy FM Friday, Samuel Abu Jinapor maintained he’s not corrupt and has never engaged in any form of corruption.

He adds that a careful analysis of the tape will prove his case that the police couldn’t have pronounced them guilty when they had not been heard.

“In the tape, it is said that tomorrow the Deputy Chiefs of Staff will appear, it was clear and the woman herself[Deputy CID Boss] attest to that, assuming without admitting that…This conversation took place before the police spoke to us and there’s a suggestion that the content of the tape proves that we’re corrupt. It is a basis cardinal principle of law that you cannot pronounce a man guilty unless you hear from him. It is so fundamental, at the time that this so-called conclusion on suggestion or observation of guilt had been pronounced in the tape, the two of us [Mr Asenso Boakye and myself] had not been spoken to.

“Let’s even grant that the content of the tape is correct, how are you going to be able to justify a pronouncement of guilt on a man when you have not heard from him. This principle is so fundamental that a Justice of the Supreme Court drew an analogy between God [trial of Adam] when He asked him, why have you eaten the forbidden fruit, and Adam put up a spirited defense.

He said Eve is the one who asked me, Eve also mounted a defense and said it was the serpent. Even God who could just lift up a finger and pronounce guilt went through a full trial. So a man must always be given his day, he must always be heard before guilt can be pronounced. So assuming without admitting that this tape is correct, it will fall on account that we had not been spoken to, so how will anybody come to the conclusion of guilt.