The Office of the Special Prosecutor has revealed that the office is authorized to only tackle corruption and corruption-related aspects of illegal small-scale mining in Ghana.
Speaking on behalf of the Office of Special Prosecutor (OSP) on Newsfile, Kissi Agyebeng, the Special Prosecutor explained that, the laws that established his outfit only mandate and empowers it to pursue cases of corruption and corruption-related, and so in dealing with the issue of illegal mining in Ghana, it can only look at the corruption aspect of it.
He said, “We are a creature of law, the law created us and the law gave us our mandate, our powers and what we can do. The law says our mandate is in respect of corruption and corruption-related activities and offenses. So for instance, I cannot come after you if it is stealing, I cannot come after you if it is murder, I cannot come after you if you were supposed to be licensed but you didn’t get the license and you went into the forest.”
He added, “I am looking at how you entered the forest and if there are any corruption related activities which engineered your going into the forest, that is aspect that the OSP is in charge otherwise, we would be going over our mandate.”
However, the Special Prosecutor assured Ghanaians that, regardless of this limitation, it would go after everyone and anyone suspected to be involved in Galamsey.
“See, galamsey is very far reaching as I keep saying it and it has engulfed us as a nation, and so we are leaving no stones unturned. Our gloves are off and we are coming against everyone and every person who we think should be dragged in before us. Everyone and every person!”.