OSP arrest warrant: I am not a fugitive – Charles Bissue

The Former executive secretary of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Charles Bissue, has refuted claims suggesting that he has gone into hiding to avoid being probed by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).

The OSP has declared the former secretary of the IMCIM wanted after it secured an order from the court to arrest Bissue.

In a tweet on Tuesday (13 June), the OSP said: “Charles Cromwell Nanabayin Onuawonto Bissue is wanted by the #OSP on Corruption and corruption-related offenses regarding the activities and expenditure of the dissolved Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM)“

However, appearing on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Wednesday (14 June), Bissue said he will honour the invitation of the OSP at the appropriate time.

“I heard it on social media, so I didn’t think it will get to this,” Bissue said. “So, basically I was surprised. I am not a fugitive, I am in Ghana.”

“I have not been charged with anything; the Special Prosecutor invited me for an interview a few weeks ago and then I wasn’t well, so my lawyers wrote to his office to explain that they give me a week…

“Then they got back to say that they will not allow the one week so I should appear in a day or two. So, it was left to that… and later I heard that there has been an arrest warrant,” Bissue said.

Bissue went to court to stop the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) from investigating him over certain allegations of corruption relating to illegal mining (galamsey).

In a writ filed on 4 January this year at the Accra High Court, Bissue is of contention that the police have already investigated and exonerated him of any wrongdoing.

It is, therefore, his case that the OSP does not have the power to review the investigations of the police or investigate him when the police have already investigated and found no adverse findings against him.