LOST OF TOP SECURITY TAPE…

…BNI drags suspect to Akatsi Shrine

Unable to control the spate of leakages at its offices, the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and the National Security on Wednesday May 13th, 2009 dragged eight of its operatives to a shrine near Akatsi in the Volta Region to ascertain which one of the them might have stolen what BNI insiders said was a “highly controversial” recording of some former officials of the NPP administration in connection with a kick-back issue.

One after the other, all eight of the operatives were made to put their necks into a rope which had been tied to a huge stone and buried in sand. The Chief Priest then besmeared their necks with funny scented oil and asked them to pull their heads backward. The idea was that the rope will hold tightly to the neck of the culprit such that the only way to loosen the grip was to confess the theft.

Unfortunately, none of the eight persons could be trapped. That left the ring leaders with sullen faces as the Grey Pajero Four Wheel Drive, with registration number-GR 1621Y, took them back to Accra.

The leader of the group, one Isaac Donkor, who is also the Special Aide of the Operations Director of the National Security, George Dogba, was expected to brief the leadership of the National Security immediately after the trip last Wednesday.

The exercise, TODAY's findings established, had the tacit approval of the BNI boss, Yaw Donkor, and the National Security Coordinator, Col. (Rtd) Larry Gbevlo Lartey. The search team left Accra at exactly 7:00 in the morning and got to Akatsi at 9am.

In all, eleven staff members of the Greater Accra Head office of the BNI, near Kawukudi Junction in Accra, were summoned to an emergency meeting at the Conference room of the Greater Accra office on Tuesday, May 12, 2009.

Mr. George Dogba disclosed the lost of the tape, which was taken from the case of an audio cassette, and therefore gave an ultimatum to all eleven to produce it by the evening of Tuesday 12th May or be subjected to a shrine search the next day.

Mr. Dogba's threat was an apparent knee-jerk reaction to a furious query by the BNI boss, Yaw Donkor, that the tape ought to be found by all means possible. With many security leakages Dogba, security sources disclosed, had no choice other than to resort to that cruel mental torture of the suspects to protect his job and also to please his masters. He, however, did not travel with the team.

On the day of the journey, three of the suspects refused to travel with the rest of their colleagues on grounds that the visit to the shrine was against their Christian beliefs. That, however, did not deter Isaac Donkor from embarking on the Akatsi spiritual search.

The initial scare, TODAY gathered, was that the suspects would be taken to the popular Nogokpo shrine, also in the Volta Region if the tape was not found. But the leadership of the office changed their mind on Wednesday, whilst they were on their way to Nogokpo and instead settled on the Akatsi shrine. None of the top Security personnel could be reached. All attempts on their cellular phones drew blanks.

Source: Today Newspaper