Charles Bissue
Former Secretary of the defunct Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Charles Bissue, has withdrawn one of his three cases against the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) which is investigating him for corruption and corruption-related offences.
The suit was seeking the court to issue a certiorari order quashing the decision of a Kaneshie District Court which issued a warrant for his arrest.
Mr. Bissue turned himself in to the OSP last Wednesday and he was subsequently arrested by the investigative body, interviewed and later released on bail.
Nana Kojo Pintoh Gyabi, counsel for Mr. Bissue, yesterday told an Accra High Court that he intended to discontinue the suit which was filed on June 9, 2023, and all the attached processes.
Dr. Isidore Tufuor, who represented the OSP, did not oppose, indicating that “this is their own application. If they intend to withdraw it, we are not opposed to it. We waive cost.”
The court, presided over by Justice Abena Amponsah Buansi, struck out the case as discontinued.
That leaves Mr. Bissue with two more cases filed against the OSP, one of them asking an Accra High Court to prohibit the Office of the Special Prosecutor from investigating him because the subject matter had already been investigated by the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghana Police Service.
The OSP on June 13, 2023, placed Mr. Bissue on its wanted list for corruption and corruption-related activities.
It followed Mr. Bissue’s refusal to turn himself in to the OSP, which secured a warrant for his arrest last week, granted by an Accra High Court.
The OSP, prior to that, secured a warrant for the arrest of Mr. Bissue after he failed to honour an invitation extended to him by the investigative body.
An Accra High Court on June 15 issued an interlocutory injunction prohibiting the OSP from arresting Mr. Bissue after his lawyers went before the court challenging an arrest warrant issued by a Kaneshie Magistrate Court.
The court, presided over by Justice Nicholas Abodakpi, in a ruling restricted the OSP from going ahead with the execution of the arrest warrant it secured last week until the final determination of a suit filed by Mr. Bissue seeking to stop the OSP from investigating him.
The court also restrained the OSP, its agents, assigns and/or persons howsoever described and claiming through it from applying for further arrest warrant against Mr. Bissue pending the determination of the substantive matter.
The court again restrained the OSP and its agents from publishing notices purporting Mr. Bissue to be wanted pending the determination of the substantive matter.
The interim injunction was to last for a period of ten days.
The OSP immediately after the issuance of the injunction indicated in a statement on Twitter that “in exercise of its police powers, the Office of the Special Prosecutor can arrest without a warrant, any person it reasonably suspects of having committed corruption or corruption-related offences.”
BY Gibril Abdul Razak