Atta Akyea in Trouble as CSOs push for Speaker Bagbin to Stop the Bias

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and individual Ghanaians are not happy with the Member of Parliament for the Abuakwa South constituency Samuel Atta Akyea as chairman of the parliamentary committee charged to investigate the alleged leaked tape on plots to remove the Inspector General of Police (IGP).

They are urging the Leadership of Parliament to act fast to stop him from dragging the image of the august House into public ridicule.

In a meeting with the Speaker of Parliament, some CSOs expressed concerns over the conduct of Atta Akyea.

They told Speaker Alban Bagbin about his attitude of bias as chairman of the special parliamentary committee.

They reminded the Speaker of the terms of reference for the committee which they said Mr. Atta Akyea has ignored to the displeasure of some committee members and concerned Ghanaians.

Present at the engagement were Imani Africa,  Center for Democratic Development (CDD), and other civil society organizations.

In an interview with Accra based Citi FM, president of Imani, Mr Franklin Cudjoe highlighted the impact of the committee chairman’s actions on the morale within the police service, stating further that, “We wanted to find out from the Speaker what the original terms of reference for the Committee were. Because, we realized that the Committee chairman seems to be setting his own questions and answering them.

“The Speaker was categorical that, well, I gave the Chairman of the Committee specific terms of reference. To authenticate the tape, essentially, the comments that were made, and the individuals responsible for those comments,”Mr. Cudjoe continued,

“To the extent that those who have been largely accused have admitted their voices and all, we believed that the matter should be concluded. So, we were very alarmed at the way the Committee chairman was handling the issues. I want to make it clear that I’m not mentioning the entire committee, as the Committee Chairman directs the affairs. Even ranking members have walked away from proceedings at certain points,” he added.

IGP LEGAL TEAM

The legal Team of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) has expressed concern over the chairman of the committee, Mr. Atta Akyea’s bias against their client. A member of the legal team, Kofi Bentil stated, “Based on his actions, we believe he is biased, and we have stated this. Many others agree with us, and indeed we think that this matter has been sufficiently addressed. We don’t see the need to engage with him as he expects us to do in the committee room.”

“We’ve never backtracked, and this issue should not dominate the substantive matters. We stand by what we’ve said, and his actions indicate bias.