In the chest of Olivier Turkson lies Ghana Police Service's PR faux pas

The police administration has marshaled its public relations army led by Olivier Turkson to defend Maame Tiwaa Danquah Addo, embattled deputy Director, Criminal Investigation Department. The raging issue has nothing to do with the police administration as an entity.

It involves an individual who, of course, occupies one of the enviable and topmost positions in the police administration.

Now that the Police administration has accepted Maame Tiwaa's alleged 'sin' as their sin, and busily working to parry it, they should be ready to bear the consequences when the obvious is proven.

Olivier Turkson spoke as though she was privy to the conversation between A-Plus and Maame Tiwaa. She could have only done what she did yesterday on the orders of the IGP, Asante Apeatu.

To the IGP and the police administration, Maame Tiwaa's voice on the tape has been doctored. The effect of the open support the police has thrown to 'one of their own' is that the act of Maame Tiwaa has now been turned into an act of the police administration.

Any punishment flowing from Maame Tiwaa's act in the event her account turned out to be untruth must be extended to the leadership of the police administration.

When it is eventually proven that the tape has not been doctored as Maame Tiwaa and the Asante Apeatu-led police administration is telling us, then the IGP, Olivier Turkson and the big shots in the police who took the decision to bind the police administration with the case must be interdicted as well.

The PR gimmick the police administration has embarked on is a wild gamble. It may consume them and further lower their already shredded image.

Maame Tiwaa issued a statement in her own name to rebuff the claims. The police PRO did not sign that statement. The PRO did not sign that statement because the act being complained of was deemed to be the act of Maame Tiwaa and not an act of the police administration.

The PR unit is the "official mouthpiece" of the police administration, and whatever comes out of that unit is the position of the police administration.

Olivier Turkson in her watery and infantile PR blunder used the word "we" to push her argument. For instance, she said "we are saying the tape has been doctored". The use of the word "we" embodies the police administration.

The Police administration is now the one saying the tape has been doctored and not Maame Tiwaa. Ironically, Olivier Turkson said the police will take steps to investigate the authenticity of the tape.

The police PRO's account suggest that the police has not done any investigation on the tape, but has jumped into conclusion that it has been doctored. If you believe that the tape has been doctored, do you need further investigation to prove or contradict what you have put out believing it to be true? Would the police administration be bold enough to tell the whole world they lied if their own investigation prove that the tape was not doctored?

It was absolutely wrong for the IGP to sanction the PR unit of the police to jump into the defence of Maame Tiwaa. The woman was capable of defending herself for which reason she issued the denial statement in her own name.

If subsequent developments on the issue demand that she clarifies her statement, she can decide to either issue another statement to do that or grant media interviews to clarify the issues.

It is not the job of the police administration to fight her battles for her. How would Ghanaians see the police administration if this tape turns out to be authentic? One of the defence mechanisms persons caught on tape have employed is that they will first issue a statement saying it has been doctored and subsequently go into hibernation.

They will not grant radio or television interviews on the issue because they know if they do that, their voice will be compared to what is on the supposed doctored tape. Maame Tiwaa is relying on same tricks but she betrayed her own intelligence thinking Ghanaians are brainless by saying admitting she had series of conversations with A Plus and that the voice on the tape is hers but has been doctored.

Maame Tiwaa used the word "doctored" without bothering to check the meaning. Subsequent paragraphs of her statement and Olivier Turkson's account show that she actually wanted to say her series of conversations with A-Plus were put together to produce the tape. This is evidence by Olivier Turkson's claim that none of Maame Tiwaa's conversations with A-Plus lasted for more than five minutes.

The police administration and Maame Tiwaa's claim that the tape has been doctored is based on the fact that the tape in circulation has a conversation which lasted for about five minutes. "Doctored" and "pieced together" are not the same. A tape may be pieced together but not doctored because the content represents what exactly transpired. To doctor means to tamper with the original version of something.

The police administration and Maame Tiwaa are mixing these two words. If you admit that you had series of conversation with someone and a tape subsequently emerges depicting that conversation and you own up to the voice on the tape but says it has been doctored, then you should be kind enough to tell us which portions of the tape has been doctored.

To be fair to the deputy Director CID, she did not deny all the things said on the tape, she only denied the portion which says A Plus' corruption allegation against the two deputy Chiefs of staff could not be far from true.

That is the only portion of the tape she believes has been doctored. And sadly, the police administration has accepted this account when it has not conducted any investigation to corroborate Maame Tiwaa's account. As for the image of the police, it will continue to he ruined until they put their house in order. The police should compare themselves to the Ghana Army.

The police administration does not command a quarter of the respect the Army commands in this country. And it is childish and unprofessional behaviors like this that has plunged the police into this sorry state. The police PRO has on all occasions since her appointment sounded incoherent, hollow argument, warp logic, and intellectually deficient.