The private legal practitioner Kwame Jantuah has urged the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to exercise its enormous powers under the Act that established it in ways that inspire confidence in the general public.
He made this remark while commenting on the arrest of Former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.
The OSP invited him for investigation over his report on the dissolved Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) that he chaired.
He also faced questions over his alleged role in the disappearance of some 500 excavators and the involvement of his son’s company, Symphony Limited, in illegal mining.
He secured a bail of GH¢2 million after his supposed arrest.
In an exclusive interview with Media General‘s Alfred Ocansey on Wednesday, June 7 he said he was surprised by the arrest on Tuesday, May 16, especially given the circumstances prior to it.
“We waited at the lobby down there [and] that was my first time in that building. We got there around 10 o’clock, waiting for my lawyer. When he came, we were taken upstairs to the 7th Floor or so, where the office is and then we were ushered into a room. I was given a chair and opposite me was the Chief Investigator. Next to me on my right were my two lawyers and then some officers from that Office.
“So, as soon as I sat down, the Chief Investigator came to me. I was sitting down [then] he put his left hand on my right shoulder and said, ‘Professor, you are under arrest’. Why? He said they are investigating corruption and corruption-related activities of the IMCIM that I was chairman of. Any specific thing I had done? No, they are just doing their investigations but all the same I was under arrest. I found it very strange.”
Speaking on this issue on TV3’s Big Issue on Friday, June 9, Mr Jantuah said “The Office of the Special Prosecutor has huge powers under the Act but the Special Prosecutor must use it such that people will have confidence in him. He arrested Frimpong-Boateng but did he charge him? No. So what is the sense of this arrest?
“Frimpong-Boateng is no ordinary gentleman, some respect should be shown to him, they could have given him self-recognizance bail.”
