Tuesday, 11 November

SML sues OSP over alleged unlawful raid, seeks $28 million in damages

News
Kissi Agyebeng, OSP

Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) has filed a lawsuit against the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), accusing the anti-corruption agency of unlawfully raiding its facilities and causing a nationwide data disruption that crippled critical petroleum and mineral monitoring systems.

In the suit filed at the High Court in Accra, SML is demanding the immediate return of seized servers and equipment, as well as over $28 million in damages.

The company alleges that the OSP’s actions breached due process, disrupted national revenue assurance operations, and caused significant financial and reputational losses.

According to SML’s statement of claim, on June 10, 2025, heavily armed OSP officers conducted a raid on its offices under what the company describes as a questionable warrant.

During the operation, officers allegedly seized critical infrastructure — including servers, laptops, external drives, and mineral analysis equipment — which formed the backbone of Ghana’s real-time petroleum and mineral monitoring systems.

The company said the seizure instantly crippled data communication between the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and 25 petroleum depots nationwide, halting real-time transaction monitoring.

“These systems are central to Ghana’s petroleum and solid minerals monitoring framework,” SML stated, warning that the loss of these devices had ‘crippled revenue authentication and data validation functions’ vital to national resource governance.

SML further accused the OSP of violating standard forensic investigation protocols, claiming that instead of performing a forensic imaging process — which preserves digital evidence without halting operations — investigators physically removed servers and devices, leading to permanent system damage and data loss.

The company also alleged that the OSP team disabled its CCTV system during the raid, preventing video documentation of the search and seizure process.

In its suit, SML is asking the court to:

Declare the OSP’s seizure and detention of its property unlawful;

Order the immediate return of all confiscated equipment;

Compel the state to compensate the company for operational and reputational losses; and

Award over $28 million in damages plus legal costs.

The company maintains that the OSP’s actions not only disrupted its operations but also undermined Ghana’s resource monitoring systems, posing potential fiscal and national security risks.

The OSP has been investigating aspects of SML’s contractual agreements with the GRA, particularly relating to its revenue assurance and data monitoring services in the petroleum and mining sectors.

However, SML argues that the raid lacked legal justification and was executed “under the guise of a warrant that did not meet constitutional requirements.”

 

As of press time, the Office of the Special Prosecutor had not yet responded publicly to the lawsuit.

Source: Classfmonline.com/Cecil Mensah