The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has indicated that it does not deem any person sacred enough to excuse them from interrogations or investigations relating to corruption and corruption related offences.
According to Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng, regardless of the fact that the public may perceive a person to be upright in their dealings, the OSP, as far as it is concerned, does not consider any person to be an angel or a saint, but must be subjected to investigation until proven innocent or otherwise.
He said that when his outfit embarks on an investigation, it seeks to engage anyone and every everyone that may be implicated.
“At the Office of the Special Prosecutor, we do not consecrate saints. No one is a saint to us. No one is an angel as far as we are concerned. When we start investigating a case, we’re looking at everybody and everywhere. You personally, as a member of the public may have your favourites. You may have those you think are so good and so consecrated saints that they come almost untouchable as far as you are concerned.
“I wish I were you to also have the luxury to consecrate someone or some persons as saints in respect of which nothing should be done to them. But where I sit, I do not have that luxury to treat people as saints,” he said on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, June 10.
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The Special Prosecutor explained that his outfit is the conscience of the nation and therefore it cannot go to sleep on corruption allegations except to probe them.
His comments follow the arrest of and subsequent granting of bail to the former Minister of Science and Technology, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng over suspected irregularities alleged to have occasioned the work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, an outfit Frimpong-Boateng chaired. Its general mandate was to help end illegal mining in the country.
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng was formerly arrested and granted a GH₵2 million bail on May 16 when he was invited to help with investigations into allegations of corruption relative to the work of IMCIM.
This approach by the Special Prosecutor has since been met with criticism as some thought the former Minister has been noble enough to be treated preferentially.
A report by Prof. Frimpong-Boateng for the attention of President Akufo-Addo recently leaked which catalogued a list of top government officials alleged to be involved in illegal mining activities in the country.
Meanwhile, Mr. Kissi Agyebeng says there are ways the OSP invites individuals for investigations. According to him, the approaches may either mean the invited individual is just a whistle blower or a suspect, saying when a person is invited and prompted to go along with their lawyer, it means the person is a suspect in a case under investigation.
“If I see you as a whistleblower, I consider you as a confidential source, I will not be telling you that when you’re appearing before me, come with your lawyer. Why would you need a lawyer if you’re coming to divulge some information that I may be interested in. But immediately I tell you that you are directed to show up and that come with a lawyer, then you should know that you are a suspect. That is what goes for everyone who appears before us in that scheme of affairs,” he added.
According to Mr. Agyebeng, the OSP is poised to go after any person against who allegations of corruptions are made.
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