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SML Sues OSP Over Seizure of Equipment, Seeks Over $28m in Damages

By Emmanuel Nkansah Abankwah On Nov 11, 2025 0

Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) has dragged the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to the High Court in Accra, seeking the return of its confiscated equipment and more than $28 million in damages for what it describes as an illegal and militarised raid on its offices.

In its statement of claim, SML said the OSP’s officers, acting under a “purported warrant”, stormed its premises on June 10, 2025, in a heavily armed operation that resulted in the seizure of servers, laptops, data storage devices, and specialised mineral analysis equipment.

The company—which provides data analytics, revenue assurance, and real-time monitoring services for the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA)—said the confiscated equipment formed the core of Ghana’s petroleum and solid minerals monitoring infrastructure.

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According to the suit, the raid led to the collapse of SML’s secure data communication network, which connected 25 petroleum depots nationwide. This, the company claims, caused a total shutdown of real-time data transmission for Ghana’s petroleum and mining sectors.

SML further alleged that the OSP’s team violated standard forensic and evidence-handling protocols by physically removing hardware instead of creating forensic copies of the data. This action, the company said, corrupted its systems and permanently invalidated essential security and authentication software.

In addition, the company accused the OSP of intentionally disabling its CCTV system during the operation to prevent any video record of the raid.

“The actions of the OSP were excessive, unlawful, and executed in bad faith,” SML’s lawyers wrote in their claim, insisting that the seizure had caused irreparable harm to national monitoring systems and inflicted massive financial losses on the company.

SML is asking the court to:

Declare the OSP’s detention of its property unlawful and unconstitutional.
Order the immediate return of all seized equipment.
Award $28 million in damages for loss of property, business interruption, and reputational harm.
Compel the OSP to cover the full legal and procedural costs of the suit.

The Office of the Special Prosecutor has not yet filed a defence or public response to the company’s claims.

The case adds another layer to the growing tension between SML and the OSP following the anti-corruption body’s probe into SML’s contracts with the GRA, which have faced public scrutiny over alleged procurement and value-for-money concerns.

The High Court is expected to set a date for the first hearing in the coming weeks.