Stephen Amoah (middle) flanked by Francis Assenso-Boakye (right) and Charles Owusu
A group of young Ghanaians who identify themselves as Concerned Citizens has called for the head of National Security Coordinator Lt Col. Larry Gbevlo Lartey (Rtd) for his complicity in the infamous ‘Yaw Boateng Gyan’ tape.
In the said conversation which is captured on tape, Yaw Boateng Gyan, national organiser of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), was heard hatching a dangerous plot for the impending elections with a group of party goons.
The plan included the issuance of National Security identification cards to a group of NDC youth to run riot on election day.
Leadership of the group had already lodged a formal complaint with the police, asking them to investigate the content of the tape which it believed was a recipe for disaster.
At a press conference in Accra yesterday, spokesman for the Concerned Citizens and leading member of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Stephen Amoah said he was not surprised about the outcome of the supposed investigations conducted into the saga by the National Security.
This, he said, was because the security outfit itself was neck-deep into the affair, hence could not have conducted any credible investigations into the affair, thereby citing the institution and its head for conflict of interest.
“We believe that the National Security and its Coordinator has no credibility because his outfit was cited in the tape,” he told DAILY GUIDE.
In the light of this, Amoah said, “I am of the view that even Gbevlo Lartey himself has to be invited to help the CID to investigate the case further; so how can he come out and say that the man is exonerated… there is nothing that borders on bla bla bla.”
Lt Col Larry Gbevlo-Lartey
“I’m even shocked because he wants to tell me that the statement that Finance Minister, the Finance Director were all involved…giving monies all the time to other people by his request and not he requesting some for himself; all these issues according to the National Security Coordinator are not issues of concern or of importance to our socio-economic development,” he noted.
An obviously bemused Sticker, as Amoah is affectionately called, stated, “It is very serious”, insisting that “we need as a people to understand that the National Security Coordinator has to stay out of it”.
Leadership of the Concerned Citizens thus asked incumbent President John Dramani Mahama to walk the talk and use his authority to order “a proper and professional” investigation into the matter.
This, according to Mr. Amoah, was necessary “to calm nerves and ease tensions that have risen up in the country as a result of the shockingly dangerous revelations on the tape which threaten the peace and stability of this nation”, insisting that it was an affront to the country’s democracy.
“The President should not underestimate the grievousness of the decision by the National Security Coordinator that there is nothing to investigate from the tape despite the glaring evidence of a deliberate conspiracy on the part of the ruling party to steal money from state coffers, disrupt election, cause violence and threaten our peace stability,” he emphasized.
This, he said, was because the issue undermined the public confidence in the National Security Services.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu