Galamsey Fraud: 'Disregard unsolicited busybody CID’s Bissue exoneration' – Tiger Eye

Tiger Eye PI, a private investigative firm headed by investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas, has asked the general public to ignore claims by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service that Mr. Charles Cromwell Nanabanyin Onuawonto Bissue, a presidential staffer and former Secretary to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, has been cleared of corruption allegations leveled against by the firm in connection with his alleged involvement in illegal small-scale mining (galamsey).

The firm said it petitioned the Office of the Special Prosecutor to investigate the matter and not the CID, therefore, they could not have exonerated Mr. Bissue.

The state-owned Daily Graphic newspaper reported on Monday, 22 July 2019 that after a four-month investigation by the CID following the Galamsey Fraud documentary which captured Mr. Bissue collecting various sums of money to allegedly bend the laws for some small-scale miners, the video was found not to have depicted the real situation.

Mr. Bissue was alleged to have taken a GHS35,000 bribe to help a make-believe mining firm ORR Resource Enterprise, circumvent all the necessary protocols pertaining to small-scale mining following the lifting of the ban imposed on such mining by the government.

In Anas' undercover work, Mr. Bissue is captured on video issuing out orders to some subordinates on the phone to fast-track ORR’s acquisition of a pass despite the phoney company’s unworthiness.

However, the CID report said the documentary is not a true reflection of what transpired between Mr. Bissue and the representatives of the said ORR Resource Enterprise.

The CID also said Anas did not cooperate with the investigation and refused to release the unedited videos of the incident as requested by the police.

But a statement released by Tiger Eye PI said: “In February 2019, a petition was sent to the Office of the Special Prosecutor just at the same time the documentary was published. Our lawyers deemed the Office of the Special Prosecutor most suitable to investigate this matter, which also involves politically-exposed persons. Tiger Eye PI did not send the petition to the Ghana Police Service and it has not participated in any purported investigations by the Service.

“The Ghana Police Service has conducted itself in this matter as an unhappy unsolicited busybody with no real substance to inform a decision. The Office of the Special Prosecutor is fully seized with the matter and it is still conducting its investigations."
“Tiger Eye PI wishes to assure the public that it is fully cooperating with the Office of the Special Prosecutor. The last time of such cooperation was on Friday, 19 July 2019 when the Office of the Special Prosecutor provided Tiger Eye PI with an additional statement form."

“So far as we are concerned, the matter is still under investigation and we await the final outcome of the process by the Office of the Special Prosecutor. We are grateful to the Ghana Police Service for graciously bowing out of the matter since its involvement has been an unhelpful distraction.”