DCOP Ayensu Opare Addo (seated)
• DCOP Opare Addo claims he is still at post as Ashanti Regional Security Liaison Officer.
• The latest information contradicts earlier claims by Major General Francis Adu Amanfo (Rtd.), the acting National Security Coordinator that DCOP Opare Addo’s contract had expired.
• Earlier, alleged members of the pro-NPP vigilante group, Delta Force, handcuffed DCOP Opare Addo and dragged him out of office.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Ayensu Opare Addo says he is still the Ashanti Regional Security Liaison Officer and that he has not been formally removed from office.
“I have not been removed as the regional security liaison officer,” DCOP Ayensu Opare Addo told Joy News monitored by GhanaWeb on Tuesday 18 May.
According to him, President Nana Akufo-Addo himself asked him to go back to the office and work, for, he is not ready to replace him with any other officer.
DCOP Ayensu Opare Addo was handcuffed by the incumbent NPP’s militia, the Delta Force, and dragged out of office.
He stated in an earlier interview that they hit him with an AK 47 assault rifle and followed him to the toilet when he needed to use it. He told the media that he suffers pain in his right leg.
“I went to the office the next [after the incident] but I am not in Kumasi now. I must be seen in the office because His Excellency the President when I went to his office, he told me to go and work because he wasn’t bringing anybody there. At the time, he said I should go and work and I’ll hear from him and that is exactly what I am going to do,” DCOP Opare Addo explained his next move.
“I wanted to see him [the President] on Friday, but he was very busy; I understood him, he was travelling on Sunday so he had to do a lot of things himself and I never bothered him with the issue there.
“I saw him when I heard that there were rumours that Budu Koomson and the other guys [of the notorious Delta Force militia] I mentioned were trying to impose somebody on me at the time. I called Budu Koomson himself and told him about this and I’ll talk about that later,” DCOP Opare Addo said.
When asked if the alleged Delta Force members identified themselves as true national security officers, DCOP Opare Addo said he knew four of them – Mustapha, Mohammed Seidu, Kerry and Attah, but the leader of the group mentioned his name as Robert – I never knew him.
DCOP Opare Addo explained that he could link the people to the vigilante group Delta Force because the “leadership of the Delta Force were with them, that is Mohammed Seidu and the other guys were all members of the Delta Force”.
When asked if he had cross-checked with the National Security Secretariat that he was indeed needed in Accra as the Delta Force allegedly claimed, DCOP Opare Addo said: “It’s not my job. The case is with the police now, so, it is the police of the Ashanti Region who should investigate this issue and I shouldn’t want to drag myself into the issue at all.”
The latest account by DCOP Opare Addo contradicts that of Major General Francis Adu Amanfo (Rtd.), the acting National Security Coordinator, who claims that Opare Addo had no locus to be in office as the security liaison officer because his contract had expired.
He told journalists in Accra on Tuesday, May 18, that DCOP Opare Addo’s contract was not renewed due to “non-performance and criminal activities”.
“He had no locus to be in the office because a new officer had been appointed and he should have handed over to the officer and he says he won’t hand over. So that is why a team was sent from Accra to go and mitigate and facilitate the handing and taking over process,” Major General Francis Adu Amanfo (Rtd.) added.
“Do you know what? The bottom line of all of this is that Opare Addo had a contract with National Security and for four years he was the regional liaison for the National Security. His term of the contract has expired. It was not renewed because of non-performance and his own criminal activities.
His contract expired, and it was not renewed. I understand that it wasn’t renewed because of non-performance and his own criminal activities.”
Major General Adu Amanfo (Rtd.) stated further that the account narrated by DCOP Opare Addo does not reflect the true happenings on the ground.
“He [Opare Addo] rather called for police reinforcement and got the team that had gone to mitigate the issues arrested and handcuffed, [but] not him Opare Addo. It was the team members from Accra that were handcuffed. He [Opare Addo] rather called the Regional Police Commander to come, and they came and arrested the team we had sent from Accra,” Major General Adu Amanfo explained.
Major General Adu Amanfo (Rtd.) added that a committee has been instituted to probe the “vicious” allegations raised by the embattled Regional Security Coordinator for Ashanti.
When asked for further clarity on his claims of criminality against DCOP Opare Addo, the acting National Security Coordinator said those issues are under investigation.
“I will say most of these things are vicious, and I say so because I am very experienced in the military. I have served 37 years, being an Ambassador to Liberia, Mali, so I have seen it all. Most of these allegations are vicious, so we need to investigate them before I can make any serious statement. These issues are being investigated.”