Private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu, has questioned the decision of the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to hand over the case of the former Minister for Environment and Sanitation, Cecilia Dapaah, to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO).

According to him, the EOCO may not have the mandate to investigate the case, which involves allegations of money laundering.

This comes after the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Agyebeng, on January 25, 2024, announced that his outfit had handed over the case to EOCO because the office determined that the crime borders largely on money laundering, which falls within the mandate of EOCO.

The legal practitioner in a 3news.com report stated that the Supreme Court had ruled that the EOCO could only investigate money laundering cases that involved government funds, and not private funds.

“Recently, the Supreme Court has been very clear about this jurisdiction of money laundering. The Supreme Court said Even the EOCO that the OSP has sent this case to, EOCO doesn't have 100% mandate in all money laundering cases. EOCO's mandate, in the recent Supreme Court ruling- Ex parte Ibrahim Malik, is that EOCO's mandate to do money laundering cases is limited to cases in which the money is government money.

“If you hear of money laundering, it means there is a predicate offense. And a predicate offense is, which offense was committed to get that money which is now going to be laundered? And when we say laundered, meaning washing- you've stolen money, you've gotten money from cocaine, you've gotten money from defrauding by false pretenses, name the crime. So, you've got money from a certain crime and now you want the money to look legitimate. So, the person brings the money to do real estate business and other businesses,” he stated.

He continued: “The thing is that EOCO can only investigate cases in which the crime that was committed involves government money. So far, Agyebeng has not told us the predicate offense.”

The legal practitioner also noted that the OSP had not disclosed the nature of the offense that led to the money laundering charge, and that it could be a private matter that was outside the jurisdiction of the EOCO.

“Based on the Supreme court decision, it is safer that EOCO involves the police so that if it turns out that the matter is not for EOCO, because the police are involved, they take over quickly. Rather than EOCO does it alone and sees that the money is private, it's not government money and it has to send it to the police,” he noted

In future, the OSP, Martin Kpebu added, should have involved other agencies, such as the police, in the investigation, to avoid any legal complications or delays.

“In future, it means that OSP has to bring in other agencies. So that at every stage they know what is going on. So that if they take over the case, they don't have to reinvent the wheel,” he added.

NW/OGB

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