The Special Prosecutor (S.P), Kissi Agyebeng had quite a lot to say about recent events surrounding the arrest of the former Environment Minister, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.
On May 16, 2023, the former Minister of Science and Technology, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, was arrested for corruption-related offences when he honoured an invitation to appear before the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
Mr Frimpong-Boateng was released on a GH¢2 million bail.
But following a story about this incident that emerged in some news reports on Wednesday, June 7, 2023, many have reacted with suggestions that the former minister may have become a target of the OSP because of an earlier report the minister released about some suspicious activities by members of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on illegal mining.
Reacting to this on Newsfile on Joynews, Mr. Kissi Agyebeng threw out such suggestions, describing it as preposterous.
Giving details about why the issues appear to have escalated in what he described as ‘luckless coincidence’, the S.P. said.
“I respect the credentials of the professor and I duff off my hat to him. You know very well, I’m an academician myself so I respect such people, on all scores, I mean his CV is unbelievable and I respect that. But I have a charge to keep, and the charge I have to keep is to the Republic of Ghana and to the public. I have been put in this position to investigate corruption and corruption-related offences. I’ve been put in this office to prosecute people whom I deem to be culpable for such offences. I’ve been put in this position to recover assets for my country. I’ve been put in this position to investigate corruption,” he said.
Mr. Agyebeng, while suggesting that the minister was invited weeks before the story broke indicated that his office could not merely let the former go because of his credentials and status in society because it may come back to haunt them.
“What I have before me and the nature of the things I’m dealing with, if I don’t act well, you are the same people who will come at me, in the middle of the investigation ‘Why were you giving some people preferential treatment while others were not?’
“If I approach this job of fighting corruption that there are some people in society who have gained the status of sainthood, we will lose the fight against corruption,” he noted,” he added.
Kissi Agyebeng further noted that, despite his association with persons in power among others, no one will dare use him to settle personal scores and he will never subscribe to that as he respects the power given to him and the sanctity of his position as Special Prosecutor.
“I have a president who is a first-rate lawyer, an Attorney-General who is a first-rate lawyer, and I knew where my Achilles heel will come from. But I admitted to the public that what I feared most was likely interference from chiefs, from pastors and religious persons.
“The OSP, at least since I have been in charge of it, is not a weapon for settling scores. The OSP does not settle scores, the OSP does not settle scores on behalf of people and for people.
“You think no one offended me before I became Special Prosecutor, why then don’t I use my power and go back to do a list of all the people who crossed me and fell out of favour with me and start going after them. That’s not how you conduct business, that’s not how you do things,” he noted.
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Kissi Ayebeng is Special Prosecutor