Special Prosecutor, why should you decline the current galamsey fraud petition?
27th February 2020
Dear Mr. Special Prosecutor,
I write to your high office to enquire about the logical reasoning behind your refusal to investigate the petition presented to your office, concerning the current illegal mining (galamsey) scandal, involving the missing excavators, missing gold, missing guns, missing cash and missing other sophisticated illegal mining equipment, contrary to the spirit of the fight against the menace.
It is appalling that you made this decision, knowing that your office and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service conducted parallel investigations on similar galamsey fraud in 2019. What has changed in 2020? Please, was your office set up to protect corrupt government appointees and alleged political party criminals or to protect the public purse?
On Wednesday, February 27, 2019, Anas and his Tiger Eye Pi team petitioned the Office of the Special Prosecutor (SP) to investigate the suspects in the galamsey fraud who were implicated in the alleged bribery scandal. The team presented all the necessary evidence to the SP in order to expedite the investigations and the subsequent prosecutions.
The Tiger Eye exposure on the galamsey fraud disclosed a massive fraud in the galamsey fight, including Charles Bissue’s ostensibly act of bribery to circumvent the laid down procedures required to be followed before any acquisition of legitimate documentation to operate legalized small-scale mining in the country. The practice was established purposely to pave way for environmentally friendly mining activities.
In the midst of the SP’s investigations into the matter, all Ghanaians can recall that the current NPP government reported the matter to the CID in March 2019 for concurrent interrogations into the same case. The CID subsequently examined the main suspect, Charles Bissue on March 15, 2019. Surprisingly, the CID completed its investigations and cleared Charles Bissue of any wrongdoing on Monday July 22, 2019.
Amazingly, the SP office interrogated Charles Bissue and his counterpart, who is NPP Ashanti Regional diehard member, Andy Owusu on May 8, 2019 and May 9, 2019 respectively but the SP office hasn’t published its findings till date. Nobody knows when the anti-corruption office will finish its investigations on the matter.
As a follow up to the recent galamsey fraud, the Civil Society Organization, the Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), officially petitioned the Office of the SP on Tuesday February 18, 2020 to investigate the alleged thievery and corrupt practices in the fight against illegal mining in Ghana.
The group requested the SP to interrogate the people indicted in the scandal, concerning the missing equipment, minerals, cash and the dangerous weapons. On a letter dated Monday, February 24, 2020, the SP office declined to conduct the investigations into the scandal. Instead, the Special Prosecutor, Mr. Martin A. B. K. Amidu referred the case to the CID of the Ghana Police Service.
Now, my humble questions to you Mr. Amidu are as follows:
1. What has changed between 2019 and 2020 to justify the prompt refusal of the parallel investigations, when we all know that it happened previously? Have the laws changed?
2. Can you disclose to all Ghanaians on the distinction between the various corruption cases and how you categorize them, based on your ratings as to which cases pass your judicial filters for investigations and subsequent prosecutions?
3. When are you going to complete your investigations into the Anas exposure part one and prosecute the suspects accordingly? Are you willing to fight corruption at all?
Mr. Amidu, I think you need to revise your mandate and act in accordance with what you are being paid for. It is the belief of all Ghanaians that you were appointed to crackdown corrupt practices in the country, especially the political vampires, buccaneers and thieves who masquerade in our political space to loot from the poor taxpayers. Shockingly, you have failed Ghanaians.
Corruption is hindering the economic, social, political and infrastructure development of Ghana. It is a major barrier to economic growth, good governance and the general wellbeing of the people.
Your office was created to safeguard the current and future generations from political criminals and your failure will serve a serious disservice to the millions of souls.
You and your descendants will not be forgiven for sleeping on the job to facilitate criminalities in the country.
God bless our homeland Ghana and make our nation great and strong!
Sincerely,
Solomon Owusu
Denver, Colorado, USA Source: myjoyonline.com