The Special Prosecutor (SP), Kissi Agyebeng has made it clear that he has a lot of respect for chairman of the defunct Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, Prof. Frimpong Boateng, but justified his decision to invite him for investigations.
In a letter dated May 3, 2023, the OSP invited Professor Frimpong-Boateng to answer questions concerning suspected corruption and corruption-related offenses in respect to the operations and expenses of the disbanded Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining.
Speaking in an interview on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, the Special Prosecutor said he is only performing his duties, adding that his commitment is solely to the country and not any individual.
“I respect the credentials of the Professor, and I doff my hat to him. You know me very well and I am an academician as well so I respect such people on all scores”.
“I mean the CV is unbelievable, I respect that and I applaud him for that but I have a charge to keep.
The charge I have to keep is to the Republic of Ghana and to the public.”
Mr. Kissi Agyebeng added that he understands that people have the rights to recognize people as saints, he has the legal backing to investigate people for wrongdoing, explaining that Ghana will lose the fight against corruption if his office deems some people as ‘saints.’
“Now when you are appearing before us, depending on what we deem to be the charges we are envisaging against you, depending on the nature of the evidence and what we deem to be the seriousness of it, we take action appropriately.
Any member of the public has the luxury to consecrate saints but in consecrating your saints and your heroes, mind you, I am your conscience, I am the spirit of the nation and the office stands for that. In the estimation of the office, there are no saints, in the estimation of the office, there are no heroes.
Now if I approach this job of fighting corruption that there are some persons in the society who have attained the status of sainthood, we will lose the fight against corruption,” he said.
He further stated that his office should interrogate Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, when looking into matters concerning “galamsey,” given that the committee failed to account for a number of things involving galamsey.