Akufo-Addo on provisional charge for publication of tape

Accra (Greater Accra)- Nana Akufo-Addo, NPP Member of Parliament for Abuakwa on Wednesday announced that he has been provisionally charged by the police in connection with the publication of the transcripts of a tape, which a government statement has called a "forgery".

The Weekend Statesman last weekend published the contents of a tape recorded conversation making serious allegations of a criminal nature against the President Rawlings.

Addressing a press conference in Accra, Nana Addo said the managing director of his Kinesic Communications Limited, publishers of the bi-weekly Statesman and Week-end Statesman newspapers, Mr Amfo Kwakye has also been charged with publishing false news.

Nana Addo and Mr. Kwakye are on police enquiry bail.

He admitted that he authorised the publication of the tapes and the circulation of copies and transcripts to the Attorney General, the Minister of the Interior and the Inspector General of Police simultaneously.

Throwing more light on "the tape" Nana Addo said an unidentified person delivered the tape to the office of the Statesman in early October this year.

He said he made copies of the tape and sent them to the authorities because he wanted the contents to be "investigated since they were matters of considerable public importance which possibly involved the President of the Republic and members of his entourage".

The MP said the conversations on the tape "related to the involvement of 'Albert' in the perpetration of certain violent and unsavoury crimes, which, according to 'Albert', were authorised by the 'the old man'."

He said: "The conversation could amount to a confession on the part of 'Albert'.

Nana Addo, flanked by Mr Samuel Odoi-Sykes and Miss Ama Busia, Chairman and first Vice Chairman respectively of the NPP, said "once the transcripts had been produced, and the enquiries surrounding the tape had been concluded, it was clear to those responsible for the paper that they were in possession of potentially grave information, with far-reaching implications for the public interest.

"The tape appeared to relate to persons who were well-known members of the President's entourage and the voice of 'Albert" appeared to belong to a person in that same entourage".

Nana Addo said he could not identify the voice of the woman referred to on the tape as "Madam" but that he could, however, identify the voice of Albert whose confession was "an important element buttressing the credibility of the tape - that 'Albert' was the person who checked into the hotel and left a bombing device", which blew up the hotel in 1992..