Charles Bissue
Counsel for the former Secretary to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Charles Bissue, has filed a suit at an Accra High Court seeking to restrain the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) from investigating and prosecuting his client, Mr. Bissue.
The counsel, Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah, has described as illegal the purported failure by the OSP to also investigate Anas Aremeyaw Anas in respect with the allegations he made against Bissue in his ‘Galamsey Fraud Part 1’ documentary in 2019.
Nana Baffour disclosed that it was the current Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, who wrote the petition that occasioned the investigation by the OSP.
Speaking to the media after the hearing on Wednesday, Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah said it is strange that the current Special Prosecutor has allegedly struck out Anas Aremeyaw Anas from its investigations into the matter.
According to him, the former Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu had indicated earlier that Anas Aremeyaw was a subject of investigation in the very matter he petitioned the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
“Mr. Martin Amidu, the former Special Prosecutor wrote an article and stated in there that apparently the Special Prosecutor Mr Kissi Agyebeng is the one who wrote the petition invoking the powers of the Special Prosecutor, and that he was also investigating Anas whiles he was in office in respect of this matter.
“And so, it is the current Special Prosecutor who has decided not to investigate Anas in this matter.
“This raised some curiosity necessitating the instant application to bring to the court’s attention to the effect that indeed it would be irrational for the Special Prosecutor to continue with its investigation and or prosecution of Mr. Charles Bissue,” he pointed out.
He indicated that it was for this reason and others, that the plaintiff [Charles Bissue] has filed a suit to restrain the Special Prosecutor from investigating and prosecuting him.
“Because we think that Special Prosecutor has acted in a manner which is illegal to the extent that Anas is not a subject of this investigation,” Nana Baffuor emphasised.
He indicated that the Special Prosecutor has on two occasions refused to provide the court with the petition that Anas Aremeyaw Anas filed invoking the powers of the OSP to investigate and prosecute Mr. Bissue.
“We think that the refusal of the Special Prosecutor to make available the petition and also investigate Anas Aremeyaw Anas in this matter raises some eyebrows.
“Prior to the filing of this suit, we made a request for the petition that necessitated the investigation.
“On two occasions, we’ve made that request and the Special Prosecutor has refused to make that petition available to us.
“We thought that they were all leading to a certain conclusion or they were suggestive,” he argued.
The court adjourned the sitting to June 12, 2023 for the hearing of the suit which is seeking to restrain the OSP from investigating and prosecuting Mr. Charles Bissue and a motion for discoveries.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi