Former Secretary to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Charles Bissue, has reiterated he committed no crime during his tenure of office.
According to him, the Anas Aremeyaw Anas exposé in which he was captured taking what was portrayed as a bribe, was a frame-up by a former staff he sacked.
“For the malice and character assassination that Anas and his sponsors had in mind, the public was denied the audio recordings and full disclosure of the purpose of that money handed to me.
“It was uncovered that a former employee of the IMCIM, Francis Owusu Akyaw, who I fired for unsatisfactory conduct sponsored the video recording of the documentary,” Mr Bissue said.
He explained the money was a donation from the Ashanti Regional New Patriotic Party (NPP) chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Wontumi to a former Western Regional Organiser, Abdul Ganiyu Mohammed.
“As I have said countless times, that money was not a bribe, and I did not make any demands whatsoever from any operative or beneficiary of illegal mining while I served on the IMCIM.
“The money in question was a donation from the NPP Chairman of the Ashanti Region, Bernard Antwi Boasiako alias Chairman Wontumi, to the then-NPP Western Regional Organiser, Abdul Ganiyu for a party event organised in the Western Region,” he said in a statement.
Mr Bissue’s comments follow calls by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for him to be prosecuted together with Chairman Wontumi, Ekow Ewusi, Professor Frimpong Boateng and other New Patriotic Party gurus for their ‘involvement in galamsey.’
“We demand the immediate prosecution of all NPP functionaries and NPP officials who have engaged in illegal mining such as Charles Bissue, Chairman Wontumi, the evidence is clear, Andy Owusu, Ekow Ewusi, Prof. Frimpong Boateng among others,” Sammy Gyamfi said at a press conference on Thursday.
But to Mr Bissue, the public was misled to accept and believe the narrative put by Anas Aremeyaw Anas about the money he was seen taking in the video.
Undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas and his Tiger Eye PI team accused Mr Bissue of circumventing the law to grant a mining license to ORR Resource Enterprise to engage in small-scale mining while a ban on same was in force.
Mr Bissue stepped aside as secretary to the IMCIM to allow smooth investigations into the matter.
But the Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID) cleared him after it concluded its four-month investigations into Tiger Eye PI’s allegations against the former Presidential Staffer.
The CID report said that the documentary — which shows Mr Bissue taking money from undercover reporters — was not a true reflection of what transpired between Mr Bissue and the assigns of the said ORR Resource Enterprise.
The report also said Mr Anas failed to cooperate with the CID in the course of the investigations as the raw and unedited footage, which was demanded was not submitted.
