Ex-Commissioner Indicts Two Former IGP's

A retired police commissioner has accused two former Inspector Generals of Police (IGPs) of wrongfully and fictitiously commending an ex-police inspector.

The ex-commissioner, David Walenkaki, did not understand why ex-Police Inspector Alidu Mohammed, whom he considered subnormal, was commended for hard work and dedication by two former IGPs in the persons of Messrs. John Kugblenu and S. S. Omane.

Walenkaki yesterday appeared before the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) to react to allegations levelled against him weeks earlier by ex-Inspector Alidu that the former and other top members of the defunct Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) engineered his dismissal from the police service.

Alidu said while working as administrator of the Police Panther Unit at the headquarters, Accra, he exposed a smuggler who had connections with Walenkaki, Capt. Kojo Tsikata and others so they worked towards his dismissal from the service.

Again, as alleged by Alidu, some police officers, led by Chief Superintendent Emmanuel Amamoo, on the orders of Walenkaki, went to his (Alidu) house and shot him in the leg.

But Walenkaki appearing yesterday before the NRC denied all the allegations and described Alidu as a 'subnormal' man who had visited mental hospitals not less than 14 times since 1975.

Chief Supt. Amamu, when he took the stand, confirmed that he ordered a subordinate to shoot Alidu in his house in 1993, but that was not executed on the orders of Walenkaki. He said he was then the head of the Kotobabi police station, when some people came to report that Alidu was attacking people with a cutlass in his house.

But the police have till today not put Alidu before any court, for the alleged attack on the people in his house in 1993, a fact Walenkaki and Amamoo confirmed, claiming that an amount of ?50,000.00 could not be raised to collect the medical report to enable them to send him to court.

The commission drew Walenkaki's attention to the fact that the man he considered not normal and had been visiting the mental hospital since 1975 received two separate honours from former IGPs Kugblenu and S.S. Omane in 1983 and 1985, respectively

. He said such commendations ordinarily go through the commander of the region where the recipient officer works, but that of Alidu did not go through such procedure. "It was possible he went and solicited it," he said.

"I saw those commendations on his file but I did not understand why such a person was commended."

Not even a suggestion to him by the commission that he was indicting his two former bosses could compel him to withdraw his assertion that Alidu's honour by the two former IGPs was phoney. "Even if I were in the service today, I would say it," Walenkaki said.

When the commission asked him whether a similar honour he claimed to have received during his service could also be described as phoney, he answered in the negative.

"My brother died at Alajo, a suburb of Accra, when he was working as a police officer but he did not receive any honour so I did not understand why this man could be honoured by those men," he said.

The chairman of the NRC, Mr. Justice Amuah Sekyi (rtd), read the two commendations to Walenkaki and pointed out to him the reasons those IGPs assigned for honouring Alidu.