Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu has been detained by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) following an appearance in response to an invitation on December 3, his lawyers have confirmed.
Kpebu was at the OSP to assist investigators looking into his corruption allegations against Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng. He was reportedly arrested for allegedly obstructing an officer while attending the inquiry.
“They kept making me appear before subordinates. Subordinates can’t investigate their boss. It’s incompetence,” Kpebu said, protesting the composition of the investigative committee and demanding an “independently constituted” panel.
In an interview on TV3’s News360, Kpebu’s lawyer, Marcellinus Biah, said, “They whisked him away. As we speak now, we are unable to tell where Mr Kpebu is.”
Mr. Biah detailed that Kpebu had granted an interview outside the OSP premises before attending the inquiry. A police officer at the gate reportedly raised objections, prompting a verbal exchange. “There was some amount of altercation between him and the officer,” Biah said, adding that Kpebu initially requested to file a complaint against the officer, but the complaint center was unavailable.
Kpebu subsequently presented his complaint before the inquiry committee, insisting it be addressed before the substantive investigation. “We were quite surprised that in the course of the proceedings, the officers went down, up and down, came back and told us that Martin was under arrest because they had investigated the matter and concluded he was at fault,” Biah explained.
He confirmed that Kpebu was later granted bail, requiring one surety, and noted that he personally returned to the office to facilitate the process.
