The Convener of the Media Coalition Against Illegal Mining, Dr. Kenneth Ashigbey is calling on the Office of the Special Prosecutor and other statutory investigative bodies to investigate claims made by the former Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.
He made this call in an interview with Citi News.
“It is really worrying that we have this report and nothing has been done about it. This is not acceptable. Criminality has been alleged by Professor Frimpong-Boateng and you know in our country, all of those mentioned are innocent until proven guilty. We will expect the various bodies who will be able to do it including the Office of the Special Prosecutor, Police CID, these are issues CHRAJ can look into. I’m hoping that the Ministry of Local Government, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources will also be reviewing the report. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo must ask the police to look into it, so I’m hoping that all of these people will act”.
In the said report authored Prof. Frimpong-Boateng accused some bigwigs in government of being involved in illegal small-scale mining otherwise known as ‘Galamsey’ and also interfering in the work of the committee tasked to fight the menace.
The report goes as high as the government seat, Jubilee House, he insisted.
“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.
But reacting to these allegations, Prof. Joseph Quarm challenged the former Minister to provide evidence to back his claims.
“This is most unfortunate and this is a total lie. I do not own a concession and while I don’t own a concession, how can I sell a concession? To me, once he has not accepted that the report is from him, I can’t say much but if the report is from him, then for a mining concession, there must be documents covering it bearing my name. I will advise that your station should request from him all documents bearing my name”.
“I don’t even own a pin of a concession, let alone several… I don’t have any concessions. If he confirms that it is from him, I will let my lawyers write to him to demand retraction and apology, and I will advise myself,” Mr Quarm said