Politicizing secrete tapes hinders investigations- Kwaku Baako

The issue of clandestinely recorded tapes is gradually becoming a common feature as the nation gears up for this year’s general elections.

The interesting phenomenon is that most of these secret tapes are either released by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), or the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC).

One can recall that in August 2011, Baba Jamal, then a Deputy Information Minister, was caught in a controversial secret tape recording in which he was alleged to be bribing journalists to massage information to favour government.

He vehemently denied ever uttering the words attributed to him on the tape, adding that the NDC was privy to information that some people were secretly using computer technology to manipulate the voices of key government officials in order to implicate them.

Then a couple of months ago, an audio recording of Mr. Yaw Boateng Gyan, National Organiser of the ruling NDC, disclosing how he intends to recruit people into the National Security solely to cause mayhem also took center stage in the media. Even though Mr. Yaw Boateng Gyan admitted that the voice was his, he said the content on the audio had been tempered with.

National Security Coordinator, Mr. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey, after listening to the tape, stated that there was nothing incriminating to warrant further investigations leading to the ‘death’ of the issue.

Adding to the repertoire of secret tapes is the current one involving Anthony Karbo, National Youth Organiser of the NPP. This was released by a youth wing of the NDC, Research and Advocacy Platform (RAP).

According to the Convener of RAP, the NPP Youth activist is clearly heard on tape planning to use mercenaries from neighboring African countries to cause violence in the upcoming election.

But he has stridently denied that the voice on that said tape is his own and dared RAP to indicate where and when and the group of people he had the meeting with.

Contributing to discussions on the subject on Peace FM’s morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, Editor-In-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, cautioned against the tendency to do ‘politicking’ with the issue of these secretly recorded tapes, pointing out that such subjectivity interferes with the work of the security agents who are trying to get to the bottom of it.

“If we strip the politics and take the matter as they stand, it will be helpful and investigations will be conducted in a non partisan atmosphere. Politicking destroys the importance of the issue; it doesn’t help in dealing with the issue objectively. It has turned into a political football and that is the most effective way of killing these cases.

“I am all for investigations into Karbo’s case. As for Yaw Boateng Gyan’s issue, I think it is an unfinished business despite what the National Security Coordinator said. This is not the first time such a tape has come out and nothing was done about it; meanwhile some of them are of a serious threat to national security…,” he said.