Forensic Examination For What Purpose?

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Garden City, New York
Jan. 30, 2015
E-mail: [email protected]

The controversy surrounding the alleged audiotape on which the supposedly captured voice of Mr. Daniel Bugri Naabu is heard claiming that the National Chairman of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) and his General-Secretary, Mr. Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, have accepted huge sums of payola in order to hobble the 2016 Akufo-Addo Presidential Campaign, has taken a bizarre twist.

In the latest fallout from the controversy, NPP Chairman Paul Afoko is demanding that a forensic examination be conducted on the alleged audiotape in order to ascertain whether, indeed, the voice on the aforesaid tape is not the voice of Mr. Naabu, who has vehemently denied the allegation (See "Afoko Directs Forensic Examination of 'Bugri Naabu Tape'" TV3 Network.com / Ghanaweb.com 1/30/15).

My real suspicion regarding the likely fabrication of the entire episode, has to do with the radio station on which those in possession of the alleged audiotape chose to air the same. And that radio station, of course, is the heavily National Democratic Congress-leaning Radio Gold-Fm. The latter radio station which, by the way, has published several of yours truly's articles in the recent past, is widely alleged to be owned by two front-bench NDC members who also happen to be siblings.

And so the logical question to ask here becomes: Why did the owners or procurers of the alleged audiotape recording of Mr. Naabu's voice decide to have the same aired on a radio station owned and/or controlled by staunch operatives of the main political opponents of Messrs. Afoko and Agyepong and, indeed, the entire New Patriotic Party constabulary? I mean, the tape could have been aired on either Peace-Fm or Joy-Fm, two major radio stations widely known to be ideologically sympathetic towards the New Patriotic Party.

This is where, I strongly believe, any credible and/or reliable enquiry ought to begin from. What I am plainly driving at is that it is highly likely that a relatively more sophisticated National Democratic Congress' gang of operatives, who are hell-bent on entrenching themselves in the seat of power and governance, could well have set alight this potentially destructive gimmickry in order to cheaply achieve precisely this objective.

For those of our readers who may not be familiar with his name, Mr. Bugri Naabu is the Northern Region's Chairman of the New Patriotic Party. Mr. Naabu is also widely known to be a staunch supporter of Nana Akufo-Addo, as well as a firebrand NPP operative who has not hesitated in the past to call out the names of party members whom he deemed to have gone against the collective and best interests of the NPP. He also appears to have become a prime target of the relentless attack of Messrs. Afoko and Agyepong, among others, primarily because these latter two most powerful administrators of the New Patriotic Party have in the recent past fiercely lobbied against the presidential ambitions of Nana Akufo-Addo, who is presently taking his third shot at the presidency.

But whether the outcome of a forensic examination of the allegedly captured voice of Mr. Naabu would dramatically change how many a staunch Akufo-Addo backer envisages Messrs. Afoko and Agyepong, remains to be seen. The unpleasant fact of the matter is that both Messrs. Afoko and Agyepong have a lot of heavylifting to do in order to regain the trust and confidence of the overwhelming majority of the leadership and the entire membership of the New Patriotic Party.

Having openly, hostilely and brazenly backed a presidential aspirant who made floating voters the topmost priority of his campaign agenda and platform, these two men have a lot of work to do to fully convince the staunch membership of the party whose affairs they have been duly elected to steer that, indeed, they are worthy of their respective administrative portfolios. I just don't believe that having the alleged audiotape forensically examined is integral to the confidence-regaining heavylifting that Messrs. Afoko and Agyepong ought to be engaged in.

In the era of the photographic cellphone and Skyping, it is rather ludicrous, to speak much less about the downright preposterous, that somebody could so facilely use an outdated audiotape fabrication to provoke an internecine battle among the key operatives of the New Patriotic Party.

____________________________________________________________