Private Legal Practitioner, Bobby Banson says the High Court’s order secured by the former Secretary of the erstwhile Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Charles Bissue does not in any way restrain the Office of the Special Prosecutor from arresting him.

This comes after Mr Bissue obtained a court order prohibiting the OSP from executing any warrant authorising his arrest at least for ten days.

https://myjoyonline.com/charles-bissue-secures-injunction-to-halt-osp-arrest/

The court presided over by Justice Nicholas Abodakpi has also asked the OSP not to apply for a further warrant of arrest until the case filed by Mr Bissue is determined.

Mr Banson in response described the order as narrow because it is dealing with a purported warrant, adding that the said warrant was not exhibited in the application.

He shared the view that although the restraining order has been obtained, “if OSP sees Charles Bissue today, he can be arrested.”

He stated that the OSP has police powers to arrest even without a warrant.

“If you obtain an order of injunction to restrain OSP from acting on a purported arrest warrant, you have not secured an injunction to prevent the OSP from working outside this purported arrest warrant.”

Speaking in an interview on Joy FM’s Top Story on Thursday, he said “If the interim order had read – it is hereby ordered that the OSP is restrained from investigating or arresting the said Charles Bissue, then you are saying that the hands of the OSP has been tied whether rightly or wrongly by the court.

“But this application does not tie the OSP's hands at all,” he said.

https://myjoyonline.com/osp-has-power-to-arrest-without-warrant/

Meanwhile, the OSP has also reacted to the restraining order saying the Office of the Special Prosecutor can arrest without a warrant, any person it reasonably suspects of having committed corruption or corruption-related offences.