The managing editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jr, has blasted the putative police commissioner shown in a leaked recording in which efforts are purportedly being made to remove Inspector-General of Police George Akuffo Dampare before the 2024 elections.
On July 12, 2023, while speaking on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana program, he compared the alleged commissioner—who in the audio only identified himself as Mensah—to a potential coup plotter.
Kwesi Pratt asserts that the commissioner would have planned a coup against the government if he had control over any division of the Ghanaian Armed Forces.
“If we have such demented people in positions, what do you think will happen, look; if people like this are in the army, they are materials for staging coup d’etat. Do you know that? People who think that the will of the people doesn’t matter, the constitution doesn’t matter, if this man has control over any section of the armed forces, what do you think would have happened? I you win an election and you are not NPP, they will make a coup against you.”
A cop who calls himself “Mensah” and a politician who is allegedly a regional chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) are both heard on the recording. Their discussion centers on their plans to remove the IGP because they believe he would be too rigid during the 2024 elections and would prevent any potential rigging.
The IGP’s administration of the Assin North by-election is expressly cited by the Commissioner as evidence of his dedication to ensuring free and fair elections.