The former Secretary to the erstwhile Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Charles Onuawonto Bissue, says he has no qualms being sacrificed if only it will advance Ghana’s development.
Mr Bissue said he is being unjustifiably bastardised in his ongoing entanglements with the Office of the Special Prosecutor, which has an arrest warrant on his head and also declared him a wanted person.
Mr Bissue has failed to honour invitations by the OSP to aid in corruption-related investigations into the activities of the presidential committee on which he served as the scribe, leading to his being declared wanted.
He also has another case before the OSP which relates to the Galamsey Fraud documentary by Anas Aremeyaw Anas and his Tiger Eye PI.
In this particular case Anas petitioned then Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu to look into the documentary and its ramifications. Mr Amidu investigated it before leaving office, but just when the new Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng was ready to prosecute the case, Mr Bissue filed a writ together with a motion for injunction to stop the OSP from prosecuting him on grounds that he had already been investigated and cleared by the police.
The case has since been one of motions.
On Tuesday, he spoke on Asempa FM’s Ekosiisen programme and served notice that far from being a fugitive, he was ready to submit to the OSP’s processes to clear his name, suggesting that he has had his name muddied enough.
He said appearing before the Special Prosecutor to respond to questions will help clear his name from all the negativity especially the stigma of being regarded as a criminal after the arrest warrant and being declared wanted.
He insisted that he has not committed murder to be declared wanted, but he was also hopeful time will prove him right and redeem his name.
Charles BIssue argued that great men are known to have sacrificed for the success of great nations and he would not mind if he must also pay the price for Ghana’s development and progress.
“I have committed no crime”, he maintained, explaining that but for ill-health and an ‘emergency’, he would have honoured the invitation by the OSP long ago. He said he has no inhibitions responding to invitations by investigative bodies, saying he has visited the National Investigation Bureau (NIB) twice, the National Security on three occasions to volunteer information, and the Police CID twice.
While acknowledging that he was very much aware he had been declared a wanted person, he said it was rather unfortunate it was happening so, describing himself as a very law abiding national who also has a reasonable appreciation of the law to decline an invitation by the OSP.
He said he had visited the Office of Special Prosecutor previously while Martin Amidu was in office and there can be no grounds for him to decline an invitation.
He explained that at the first instance when he was invited, he responded with a request to be allowed to attend to an emergency and thereafter honour the invitation, but the OSP insisted he was to honour the invitation immediately.
Charles Bissue explained that he was not in Accra but was in the Western region, and that contrary to false claims rife in the media, he had not absconded from the jurisdiction.
I’m in Ghana and not absconded, where else can I run to? I am within the jurisdiction, it is unfortunate the impression is as though I’m a fugitive, he said.
He called for calm, stressing that meeting the SP will be an opportunity to redeem his image.
I’ll go and answer whatever questions there are, I’ve got nothing to hide. I was not the spending officer at the IMCIM, I was taking instructions and of course, if you’re handed a responsibility, you account for it. I did my work diligently when I was there till 2019. I’ve done no wrong. I know the work I did and I can account for my work even with my eyes closed, he told his host, Omanhene Kwabena Asante.