The former Secretary to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Charles Bissue, has been declared wanted by the Office of the Special Prosecutor.

This declaration comes after Mr Bissue failed to comply with an invitation from the Special Prosecutor to appear and provide answers pertaining to the ongoing investigation into suspected corruption within the dissolved IMCIM.

In response to the investigation led by the Special Prosecutor into alleged corruption involving Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, the Chairman of the IMCIM, Mr. Bissue took legal action by filing a writ at the High Court in Accra. His objective was to prevent the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) from prosecuting him.

Within the writ, Mr. Bissue revealed that he had received a letter from the Office of the Special Prosecutor, which deemed his presence necessary for the investigation and requested an interview with him.

Back in December 2022, Mr. Bissue initiated legal proceedings by issuing a Writ of Summons and Statement of Claim against the OSP and two others after the OSP announced in its Half-Yearly Report that it had concluded investigations into corruption allegations made by Tiger Eye P.I. and Anas against Mr. Bissue.

In January 2023, Mr. Bissue amended the writ and subsequently filed an injunction to restrain the OSP from further investigating and prosecuting him. The Office of the Special Prosecutor was granted permission to file its statement of case in opposition to the Motion.

However, despite several adjournments in the proceedings, Mr. Bissue has not taken any action on the injunction application.

The Office of the Special Prosecutor considers Mr. Bissue’s failure to honor the invitation as a significant hindrance to the investigation and has declared him wanted.