A claim by Benjamin Akyena Brentuo, a member of the ruling party�s Communication Team on Joy Fm�s flagship programme, Newsfile, last Saturday, that per a supposed police preliminary investigations, the checkpoint at Mankessim in the Central Region, where the Deputy Minister of Interior, Kobby Acheampong had altercation with the police was unauthorized, and was also at a dangerous place has been refuted as pathetic lies by the police service.
Acting Public Relations Director of the Police Service, DSP Cephas Arthur, told this paper in a telephone interview yesterday that, ��I don�t know where he had his information from but ideally, the police wouldn�t divulge any part of investigation when investigation is still in progress, so I don�t know where he got it from and so I will not be able to confirm it or otherwise�.
When this reporter drew his attention to the fact that the NDC functionary had claimed on the programme that Ghanaians could double-check from him (DSP Cephas Arthur), he said, �Well to the best of my knowledge I haven�t had any hint of such an assertion because I know that the matter is under investigation and I am not part of the investigation, I am only a mouthpiece and I know that the police wouldn�t want to divulge such information when it�s still under investigation�.
According to Cephas Arthur, he could not tell whether Akyena Brentuo was quoting from his own source but in relation to what he(Akyena Bretuo) said on Newsfile, ��he can�t be quoting from us�, adding that �I don�t know where he got that from�.
The government communicator stated on Newsfile that, the NDC had always been friends with the police, and that the party was extremely satisfied with the votes they (police) gave the NDC during the last general elections �but this case, from what we know, the police service say that one, the roadblock was not authorized�.
This assertion attracted the attention of the other panelists on the programme but Akyena Bretuo insisted �Yes, find out from their PRO, they say their preliminary checks indicate that the roadblock was not authorized. Two: They also believed that the point they were doing the roadblock itself was dangerous�.
Prodded by the host (Sampson Lardy Ayenini) to tell Ghanaians where he had his information from, he repeated �check with the police�.
It would be recalled that Kobby Acheampong told Joy News the policemen were conducting the operation at an inappropriate location and when he decided to advise them he was insulted by one of them.
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