Security Bombshell: Fall-out of Gbevlo-Lartey coup scare

THE Police Service has begun discreet investigations into a scandalous revelation by an NDC foot soldier that Minister of The Interior, Hon. Hackman Owusu Agyemang and Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations, Dr. Kofi Kesse Manfo, allegedly contracted him to gather recording data on some key officials within the national security apparatus with a view of framing them up as agents of the main opposition party.

The probe follows an earlier enquiry into the same issue by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), this paper has learnt.

Both probes are the results of claims by Mr. Kofi Kakraba Korsah, a.k.a. Kojo Mensah, a well known figure within the NDC underworld, that he was contracted and paid initial sums of money by the Interior Minister and Dr. Manfo to discreetly record alleged meetings between the National Security Advisor and Coordinator, Mr. Francis Poku, Inspector General of Police, Nana Owusu Nsiah, his deputy IGP, one Akwasi Acheampong, and the Greater Accra Regional Police Commander, ACP Kofi Boakye with some suspected NDC activists, including the retired former 64 Battalion Commander, Lt. Col. Gbevlo-Lartey.

Such recordings were to be used to suggest that the security officials were dangerous to the cause of the ruling party and that they were sympathetic to the cause of the main opposition NDC and therefore needed to be axed, Kakraba told this paper in a recent interview on the issue.

He claimed that he was also told to get a voice recording of Kofi Boakye that would show that he was a friend of Gbevlo-Lartey and was a partner in the infamous Gbevlo-Lartey coup that never was.

Both the Interior Minister and Dr. Manfo have denied the claims (see accompanying story).

Concord?s independent checks, which started long before the police probe, confirmed that the allegations which were suggestive of some cracks in the national security apparatus, had gotten to the ears of the President, John Agyekum Kufuor.

Kakraba?s evidence suggests that he was asked by the Interior Minister and Police Commissioner to try as much as possible to infiltrate his party members? alleged meetings with the Security Coordinator, IGP, and Deputy IGP and bring evidence of those meetings to them so that the Minister would carry it to the President.

According to him, Dr. Manfo told him that he was supposed to be the IGP and that with the exit of Nana Owusu Nsiah, the Interior Minister, would lobby for him to get the post.

In return, the Minister also wanted recording data on the Security Advisor and the IGP, whom he allegedly wanted sacked.

Kakraba said he was given ?300,000 and the phone numbers of Dr. Manfo after which he subsequently met the Police Commissioner to negotiate for the ?job?. ?At that meeting he gave me ?2 million in ?20,000 notes and directed that l should see the Interior Minister?, he told this paper weeks ago.

He said he was then directed on Dr. Manfo?s mobile phone by the Minister to meet one Ernest at the Tudu branch of Sikelele stores, owned by the Interior Minister.

It was there that he met the Minister, who came with his bodyguard and driver in his official 607 Peugeot car and was given another ?1 million to complete the job, he claimed, adding that it was agreed that he would be given ?50 million after executing the task. The Minister, he claimed, also promised him a trip to any destination of his choice within the Western world.

He said the Minister then gave him his number ?but turned it. He wrote his number for me and asked me to get back to him. So the 024, he wrote 024 but instead of 32 he made it 23, instead of 6?.

Back at Dr Manfo? house, he received a brand new Olympus mini-recorder with its own battery pack and tape (presently in the care of this newspaper).

But Kakraba alleges that he rescinded his decision to work for the duo when he realised that Dr Manfo, whom it was agreed he should deal with, consistently failed to deliver on alleged funds for the operation.

?So I started rushing Doctor, both office and house. I?d say doctor I need money to do this, l need money for that, you know my boys and ?. And he would tell me so many things, including complaints that all the funds were presently from him and that the Minister was not helping much. Then I?d tell him, tell the Minister, let him give you everything and I?ll finish the job so you bring the money?.?

According to him, there were instances when he would test the resolve of the alleged partners to assist him by rushing on Dr Manfo to request for money for the task assigned to him.

?When l come again and l say l need ?500, 000, we?ll talk and talk and at the end he will give ?50,000. If l return in maybe the next two hours he will search and search and give me ?50,000. So l said to myself, this man, I?ve been to him two hours ago and he gave me ?50,000. The next time he gave me ?50,000. So why didn?t he give me the full sum when l was demanding, even ?200,000 so that l won?t come again? So I said to myself if l really do such a job, l can be barricaded in the system?.

According to him, he therefore decided to spill the beans by going to the IGP. ?I marched straight to his office and spoke to his ADC ?who marched me straight to the IG and told him.?

Concord: You told him what?
?I told him the agenda the Minister had given me and everything. I told him that this is what the Minister had told me and that Minister even said that he, IG, don?t respect him and that there was a problem between him and IG and that he wrote a query that IG don?t want to answer and that they went and sorted it out at Ama Busia?s place. And that when they were going, the Minister asked me to wait so that after the meeting he would ask me to make the next move. So IG was shocked cos he knows whatever l told him was the truth.?

That was not all. According to Kakraba, he followed up to the National Security Coordinator that same night and informed him. I didn?t have time to see Akwasi Acheampong but I went to Kofi Boakye also and told him everything. I showed Kofi Boakye the ?2 million, I showed him the recorder, also showed them the Minister?s ?1 million also.... Nobody took a dime out of it and l went and spent it.?

So how did the Minister get to know you, this paper enquired.

According to Kakraba, he crashed into the Minister on one his usual rounds to Parliament House to meet Hon Doe Adjaho. There was a debate among some NDC executives and NPP parliamentarians, so l was pointed out as a die-hard NDC supporter and the Minister saw me and asked whether I was a member of the Awareness Group of the NDC.

?I said yeah.
He asked: ?Are you the boys who challenged Obed?
I said yeah
Then he said I?ve got a job for you, so see me when we close.?

The National Security Coordinator and IGP declined to comment on the issue when reached, with the IGP explaining when reached that he would not comment on the issue because his name had cropped up.

Earlier, ACP Kofi Boakye confirmed that he saw money and a recorder when it was brought to his attention.