Former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof Kwabena Frimpong Boateng has named some top government officials as being engaged in the illegal mining canker, popularly known as ‘galamsey’.
The renowned professor who served under President Akufo-Addo during his first term insisted that the rot goes as high as the government seat, Jubilee House.
President Akufo-Addo, last month, tasked the police to investigate allegations, but a 36-page document written by Prof. Boateng has been intercepted, addressed to the president, the Chief of Staff, and the police.
In the said document, the renowned surgeon mentioned some individuals he claims frustrated his effort and the committee he chaired from addressing the canker.
“Throughout our struggle with illegalities in the small-scale mining sector, what baffled me was the total disregard of the President’s commitment to protecting the environment.
“I can state without any equivocation that many party officials from the national to the unit committee level had their friends, PAs, agents, relatives, financiers, or relatives engaged in illegal mining. Most of them engaged Chinese working for them.
“I am not referring to party people who had their legitimate concession and were mining sustainably as they were instructed to do.
“There are appointees in the Jubilee House that are doing or supporting illegal mining or interfering with the fight against the menace,” excerpts of the document said.
Professor Frimpong also accused a former NPP MP in the Ashanti Region of selling illegally acquired concessions at GH¢200,000 each.
According to him, this “infuriated the party in the constituency so during the 2020 primaries to select a candidate the electorate voted against NPP MP, the then sitting MP, who was more resourced than other candidates.
Although there were allegations that he ‘camped’ delegates and attempted to bribe them, he lost to a lesser-known individual who did not have any financial muscle.
Prof Frimpong Boateng, earlier in March, insisted that the rot goes as high as the government seat, Jubilee House.
In an interview with state broadcaster GBC, the former Minister said these individuals supervised his ousting from the Ministry in order to continue perpetuating the canker.
Prof. Boateng stressed that the allegations of some 500 missing excavators from illegal miners in 2020 were fabrications of persons in the government to get him out of the way.
Following the revelation, there were calls from a cross-section of Ghanaians for state security agencies to look into it.
On the back of this, the President asked the Ghana Police Service to probe the matter.
This, the former Minister has written to the Presidency, naming the specific individuals he referred to in his claim.
