The General Secretary of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has said unseen political hands are manipulating the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service as far as the invitation of the party’s National Chairman Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo over a leaked audiotape is concerned.

Mr. Nketia said on Accra100.5FM on Monday, 4 March 2019 that NDC officials including himself who accompanied Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo to the CID headquarters in the morning were kept waiting for over one hour without being attended to.

Mr. Asiedu Nketia said he suspects the delay in attending to them was due to the police hierarchy taking directions from the government concerning the situation.

“We have been here for more than one hour and nobody is asking us any question,” he said.

He alleged that: “We suspect that the police are being controlled by some unseen hands in government”.

The CID requested to meet Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo after the leakage of an audiotape which captures a male voice purported to be his, urging communicators of the party “to wage a relentless war” against the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mrs. Jean Mensa; “insult” the Chairman of the National Peace Council, Rev Prof Emmanuel Asante and use “tactical” means to put fear in some Ghanaians by letting them know that “their lives are in danger” in the lead-up to the 2020 polls.

Last week, while speaking to party supporters after a Victory Health Walk in Accra, Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo gave the assurance that he would honour the invitation.

He said: “I want to assure you that the NDC Chairman has not run away from anybody. When we finish thanking God on Sunday, on Monday, our lawyers have informed the CID that the National Chairman of the NDC will come to the CID headquarters to answer any questions that they want. By eight O’clock, we are there and, so, I want to assure them that the peaceful Chairman, the peaceful party will respond to their call even though they first invited us through WhatsApp”.

According to him, the NPP “cannot sleep” because they know the NDC has “a Chairman who is a peaceful person, a Chairman who is reconciling his party and bringing his party together in unity to win 2020”.

“Less than three months ago”, he told the crowd of party supporters, “You elected me as the Chairman of the party. Now the NPP has organized a press conference asking me to resign. I want to assure you that I am a man of peace, and my hands are clean. I have been in politics for many years, there’s no evidence I have won my victory through violence or spoken against anybody. I want to remain focused, the NDC wants to remain focused. We will win the election freely, fairly and clearly."

“The NDC believes in the rule of law and we are Democrats...I want to assure all Ghanaians that the NDC will not kill women to win power, the NDC will not kidnap people to win power, the NDC will not insult to win power, the NDC will bring a message of hope to Ghanaians”, Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo noted.