‘Liar’ Deputy CID boss should prove I ‘doctored’ her voice – A Plus

Kwame Asare Obeng, popularly known as A-Plus, has dared the Deputy Director of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), ACP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, to prove her allegation that he (A-Plus) “mischievously doctored” her voice in a recorded phone conversation between the two in connection with investigations by the police into allegations of graft against Deputy Chiefs of Staff, Samuel Abu Jinapor and Francis Asenso-Boakye.

“Where is her evidence?” A-Plus demanded on Thursday, 28 September in an interview with Kwadwo Asare-Barfuor Acheampong a few hours after ACP Addo-Danquah issued a statement accusing the musician and staunch supporter of President Nana Akufo-Addo of doctoring her voice in the recorded conversation to seem as though she covered up wrongdoing on the part of the two Deputy Chiefs of Staff.

“He [A-Plus] mischievously picked some aspects of my voice in a later conversation I had with him when the report was released. Significantly, it is imperative to indicate that the said telephone conversation that has been doctored or edited lasted for 56 seconds. It should be clear to discerning Ghanaians that the said recordings lasted for over 5 minutes,” ACP Addo-Danquah said in her statement.

The CID recently cleared the two Deputy Chiefs of Staff of any wrongdoing but the audiotape in circulation painted a picture of a cover-up.

On the audiotape, the female interlocutor (ACP Addo-Danquah) is heard telling a male character (A-Plus) on the other end of the line that: “As for the corruption aspect of it, from what you said and what we’ve gone to confirm, you wouldn’t be too far from right to say that this is what happened, but we need to manage… the people are your people. We need to find the best way to ensure that Korle Bu works the way we all want it to work.

“You need somebody who’ll be neutral to tell them exactly what is there for them to understand, and I wish I could have an audience with the President himself because it looks like most of the things don’t get to him…yes I feel sad for him. I feel he has good intentions but he’s not going to achieve it.”

Reacting to the leaked tape, Mrs Addo-Danquah said: “The A-Plus corrupt allegations were thoroughly investigated by a team of four senior detectives headed by the Director General of the Criminal Investigative Department (CID), of which I was a member.

“I wish to categorically and emphatically state that I have never intimated to A-Plus in any conversation whatsoever that I believed that his allegations of corruption against the two senior government officials had been confirmed following our investigations.

“I certainly could not possibly have come to that conclusion when at the time I spoke to him, A-Plus, whilst insisting that he documents his denial of thievery against the two, the investigative team had not had the benefit of a response from the two appointees. I have listened to the purported telephone conversation between myself and A-Plus many times and it is very obvious that my conversation with him had been doctored, and or edited to achieve a deliberately mischievous and evil purpose. Much of the content of the said tape is a total fabrication and the figment of the author’s imagination.”

A-Plus, however, said even though it is possible to doctor the tape, ACP Addo-Danquah must “prove that it is me”.

“You can’t make accusations when you don’t have evidence to prove. If it is doctored, say it is doctored, why do you accuse me? It is possible that somebody else doctored it,” A-Plus told KABA.

He admitted speaking to ACP Addo-Danquah “several times over and over” during the investigations and admitted that the male voice on the tape is his but added that he could not be sure if any part of the tape had been doctored.

“It is my voice on the tape. I can’t tell whether my voice was doctored. I was under a lot of pressure during the investigations so a lot of things are blank in my mind,” he told KABA, adding that: “You can’t tell me I doctored your voice.”

Asked by KABA if he ever threatened ACP Addo-Danquah that he was going to leak the audiotape after the CID report said it found his allegations as “baseless”, A-Plus said: “She’s a liar. I never threatened to leak any audio conversations I had with her. I will not accept it.”

According to A-Plus, ACP Addo-Danquah rather called him up and described him as a “stupid” man for recording their conversations.

“She called me to tell me that she knew I recorded every conversation we had. I didn’t leak the audiotape. If she says I’ve doctored her voice she should come and arrest me,” A-Plus added.