The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) has commenced assessing the complaint filed by Member of Parliament (MP) for South Dayi in the Volta Region, for an investigation into the illegal mining report authored by Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, Chairman of the now-defunct Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM).
He has accused government officials of colluding in the fight against illegal mining, despite the report having been dismissed by the Presidency but Mr Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, the MP has asked the Commission to investigate the issue.
Other stakeholders are also calling for an independent probe into the allegations.
Joseph Whittal, Commissioner of CHRAJ, explained that various procedures would be initiated before a full-scale inquiry begins because the procedures of CHRAJ required it to make an assessment of the complaints.
He pointed out that procedures of the Commission required they made an assessment of the complaints and not every complaint that was filed met the standards expected of a complaint that could be admitted for investigation.
“We will do the assessment, determine which of the mandates, if any, has been evoked by the petition, after which if there are any further and better particulars in terms of clarification of documents, we will ask for that from the lawyers of the complainant,” Mr. Whittal indicated.
Mr. Dafeamekpor called for public hearing as CHRAJ launched a probe into unlawful mining activities in the country.
In a 37-page document, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, accused important government political actors of poisoning significant water bodies.
Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo, lawyer for the MP, after presenting the petition, said he believed the committee would conduct a thorough investigation and cautioned that the nation would be importing water in future.
He noted that just as the public had shown interest in the filing of the petition, they should follow up processes and ask questions about how far the investigations had got to and not seem like the issues were solely for the petitioner.
According to him, the petitioner would be issuing letters to check up on the issues every week to find out what was happening saying “I have been given utmost assurance the issues would be taken seriously, so l leave the rest to the commission.
“We will give them the benefit of the doubt to do an excellent job since they have done that in the past and CHRAJ stood up to issues of corruption and public interests which is existential matter and must be thoroughly investigated,” Nii Addo intimated.
Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has reacted the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining report authored by Prof Frimpong-Boateng.
Adding his voice to commentaries about the galamsey report and the National Democratic Congress’s call for a parliamentary hearing, the Suame MP indicated that if the allegations are true, it will require a probe.
According to him, the issue of galamsey and the allegations contained in the report will require a second look before a conclusion can be drawn.
“I will want to have the report and go through it well to inform myself before I make a conclusion on the issues raised by Prof. As I stated earlier, which I agree, galamsey is costing us as a nation. For us to destroy the country for the individuals to benefit for some selected few is not in order for development,” he said.
He added that if the allegations raised turn out to be true, there will be an investigation.
“So, if the issues raised are true, then it requires investigation,” he said.
Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu was speaking on Kumasi-based Oyerepa TV.
Background:
The NDC, in an address called ‘Moments of Truth,’ called on the Office of the Special Prosecutor and parliament to investigate the claims made by Professor Frimpong-Boateng, the former Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining.
The opposition is demanding a televised inter-partisan probe into the galamsey report, which indicted some NPP top officials for engaging in galamsey or obstructing the operations of the IMCIM.
John Dramani Mahama’s assertion that Ghana’s cocoa industry has collapsed has been refuted by the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD).
The former president had claimed that it now takes three months for farmer to receive their cash for cocoa beans.
Mahama also added that the cocoa farmers no longer enjoy free fertiliser as they used to during the period of the NDC.
But in a statement, COCOBOD said, “The notion of a collapsing cocoa industry. Such statements are misleading and detrimental to a vital sector like cocoa, which forms the foundation of Ghana’s economy. We, therefore, wish to use the opportunity to make some clarifications and also set the records straight.
“It is widely acknowledged that galamsey operations pose a significant danger to our nation, and any attempts to justify or rationalise the conversion of a piece of land, especially a cocoa farm, into a Galamsey site, like the former president sought to do, must be met with contempt.”
The statement added “this menace has the potential to negate all the investments made by the government to modernise cocoa farming and improve productivity. It is, therefore, crucial that prominent figures in our society exercise caution when making public statements that rationalize cocoa farmers trading their farms for temporary monetary benefit through illegal mining.
“Management also wishes to place on record, that the Former President’s statement regarding the increase in cocoa producer prices every year during his administration is inaccurate, since the records available point to the opposite. Specifically, there was no upward adjustment of the producer price of cocoa in the 2012/2013 Crop Season. Similarly, the producer price of the preceding season was maintained for the 2015/2016 Crop Season, with no upward adjustment.”
The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has demanded an independent inquiry into the plethora of allegations in the former Environment Minister, Prof Frimpong Boateng’s report.
This, the group in a release issued on April 27th stated is because Mr Boateng’s report is not a vague collection of incidents but mentions names of institutions and individuals whose actions or inaction the report perceives as complicit in the illegality and harm being perpetuated in the search for gold.
“For instance, the report makes mention of a Cabinet directive to the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources which was disregarded and the Forestry Commission’s role in mining activities in forest reserves.
“The report also cites politically exposed persons including Gabby Okyere Darko, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Minister of Information, Osafo Marfo, Joseph Albert Quam, former Member of Parliament of Manso Nkwanta Constituency, and a few others for allegedly abusing their position or engaging in influence peddling.”
With the above mentioned, GII notes that “It is almost a cliché to quote the President’s vow to fight small-scale illegal mining; “I pledge to put my presidency on the line if that is what it means to end illegal mining” but it seems inevitable because since this pronouncement, a number of incidents have occurred to test the President’s commitment to ending illegal mining but sad to say, the President’s actions have not kept pace with his rhetoric leading to waning trust in the President’s commitment to the fight against “galamsey” by all well-meaning Ghanaians.”
For this reason, they believe that Prof Boateng’s report offers the President an opportunity to redeem the trust of the people of Ghana.
It added that it “also places a burden on state institutions such as the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to rebuild public confidence which according to the Afrobarometer (round 6), 63 per cent of Ghanaians would rather engage religious leaders in resolving their issues rather than engaging state institutions.”
GII further called on Anti-Corruption State Institutions to;
Proactively initiate investigations into the allegations contained in the report and make recommendations on the next steps. GII welcomes the directive of the President to the CID of the Ghana Police Service on the matter however, GII holds the view that it should be possible for the various investigative bodies to collaborate on this matter just to assuage the fears of Ghanaians that is, through the power of appointment and disappointment, governments are sometimes able to influence the outcome of investigations concerning members of their government;
Alternatively, the President could set up an Independent, Bi-partisan Commission of Enquiry to undertake transparent investigations into the issues raised in the report.
Meanwhile, GII says it will also formally petition CHRAJ and the OSP to investigate aspects of the report that are corruption-related.
Member of Parliament for the Madina Constituency, Lawyer Francis-Xavier Sosu, is the latest to call for a probe into the claims in the Professor Frimpong-Boateng’s exposé about illegal mining or galmsey.
He has called for an independent commission to be set up to investigate the issues that have emerged from the report.
Lawyer Sosu criticised the government’s fight against illegal mining and said officials of the Akufo-Addo administration is only good at saying one thing and doing the opposite especially when the public is not watching.
Sosu was speaking to the media at the 2023 National Youth Conference (NYC) on natural resources and environmental governance,
“The galamsey fight has been a very disappointing one and the government has failed Ghanaians, especially in the wake of the revelations coming out of Professor Frimpong-Boateng’s galamsey report,” he said.
“Promises and commitments made by the government must be backed with actions. The government can sometimes make beautiful commitments to afforestation, and beautiful commitments to the protection of the environment, and yet at the blind side of all Ghanaians, they will be the ones leading the degradation of the environment and for me, that is hypocrisy, that is bad faith and that is not taking Ghanaians seriously.”
He further accused the government of suffering from policy crises and urged Ghanaians to demand accountability for the promises and commitments it makes.
“The government is suffering from serious policy crises because for every promise that the government makes, the credibility of those promises all always questionable.
“There is a need for all of us to call for a right to climate change, and have a more modern approach to dealing with issues having to do with climate change.”
Claims by former Minister for Environment, Professor Frimpong-Boateng, about President Akufo-Addo’s residence being hit by illegal mining activities have been refused by persons with first-hand information.
The former minister in his Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining report said a team had to be dispatched with excavators to restore the vegetation when he learned that the President’s garden had been invaded by illegal miners.
But media engagements with caretakers of the president’s home have revealed that findings in the report are inaccurate.
A caretaker for seven years noted that since he started working, he is yet to sight any illegal mining activity happening at the compound.
“Not at all. Security is here 24/7 so how can security be here and then we allow people to come in that we are coming to do galamsey? What is the purpose of the security being in the house?” he quizzed.
He further questioned how the excavators can be moved into the premises due to the size of the gate.
Security agents stationed at the premises, according to Elton Brobbey, noted that since President Akufo-Addo’s inauguration in 2017, there have always been police, military, and immigration officials on the premises at all times, making it difficult for anyone to gain access without clearance.
As a result, he asserted that the claim that illegal mining took place in the garden is untrue.
“I wonder why people with high positions can bring themselves so low to that extent of telling lies…I don’t see the point because there is a house here with trees in it up to this point, and I’m not sure how we were able to dig the gold, remove the trees, and replace them. So the trees speak for us, and I don’t believe we need to. The trees and the environment speak for themselves,” he added.
Director of Local Government Services at the Office of the President, Dennis Miracles, has said it would be difficult to rid the country of illegal mining as it is deeply-rooted into society.
He noted that the operation of illegal miners is that vast that an association has been created to aid their business.
According to Dennis Micracles, “galamsey in Ghana is like cocaine in Mexico and Colombia, it is a whole cartel.”
He therefore said “it needs many years of hard work, many years of dedication, many years of education and years of trying to cause attitudinal change in the people,” in order to get rid of the canker.
Successive government’s have put in new initiatives and tried to enforce existing laws but the issue of galamsey continues to linger.
A recent report by the former Environment, Prof Frimpong-Boateng on the work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), has suggested how some government officials have been fighting the initiatives to end galamsey.
Among those accused are the late Sir John born Mr Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, Joseph Albert Quarm, the former MP for Manso Nkwanta, Laud Commey, Charles Nii Teiko and Frank Asiedu Bekoe.
But a number of the accused have refuted the claims levelled against them. Mr Lord Commey has challenged the former minister to provide evidence to prove his case.
A member of NDC’s communications team Baba Sadiq Abdula has named some known individuals who allegedly influenced Ghana’s fight against illegal mining activities that have since wreak havoc to Ghana’s natural water bodies.
According Baba Sidiq, the group of three he described as a ‘cartel’ used blackmail, and extortion to coerce Prof Frimpong-Boateng into yielding to their requests.
The 3, named by Baba Sidiq as Gabby Otchere-Darko, Kwaku Baako and Egbert Faibille were out to protect just one individual in the person of Emmanuel Donald Entsuah, owner of Imperial Mining and A&C Alaska.
Read Baba Sidiq full comment made on Accra-based TV station Onua.
“You remember Erastus Asare Donkor did an investigative documentary where one of the companies he focused on was the same Imperial Mining which Gabby is today claiming that they were doing prospecting. If you see all the videos that came out at the time, nobody will tell you it was pure mining and not prospecting as claimed. Rather interestingly, you will see the linkage. The person involved, Donald Entsuah, the A&C Alaska guy was my colleague at Viasat 1. He was a sales manager working in the media. But his friends are the likes of Gabby, Kwaku Baako and Egbert Faibille…
“So it is a whole cartel that is involved in this thing. The Coffee Shop Mafia is a den of blackmail and extortion,” he stated on Onua TV’s morning show, Onua Maakye.
“The whole essence of the Coffee Shop Mafia is blackmail and extortion. Which politician doesn’t know this? Ask every senior politician and they will tell you. Frimpong-Boateng spoke about it when he said some journalists were sabotaging his good work by publishing stories about him and threatening him. Is this not extortion and blackmail? It is pure blackmail and extortion,” he stressed.
“I want to say to the Ghanaian people that whatever it takes to protect the forest reserve of the country, the government is putting in place all kinds of measures. Recently, we had a retreat and the Forestry Commission briefed cabinet on the measures that are being taken to protect forest reserves. We are going to continue these measures to ensure that these forests are protected from the drivers of deforestation and degradation.”
In a 37-page paper, the former Minister of Science, Environment, Technology, and Innovation, who also served as Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, accused important political actors in the government of contributing to the poisoning of significant water bodies.
The Chairman of the now-defunct Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (ICIM) accused government officials of colluding in the war against galamsey.
The report has been dismissed by the Presidency, but a number of stakeholders have pushed for a thorough probe by an independent body.
President Akufo-Addo has directed the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to investigate the allegations in the leaked Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) report.
The ruling New Patriotic Party’s Director of Communications, Richard Ahiagbah, made this known in a tweet.
The said report alleged in many parts direct and indirect complicity on the part of government and party officials in galamsey and in frustrating the work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) which the former minister was chairman of.
In a tweet dated April 26, 2023; Ahiagbah slammed a press conference by the main opposition National Democratic Congress demanding a probe by the Special Prosecutor and Parliament into the report which was authored in 2021.
He intimated further that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Adddo had referred the 36-page report to the Criminal Investigations Department of the Police for independent investigation.
“On Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng’s document, as a party, we support the President’s prompt referral of the document to the CID, for an independent investigation. That is the democratic way, and the NDC is fully aware.
“The fight against galamsey is existential, but sadly the NDC has never seen it as such. The NDC sees it first as politics, an avenue to canvass votes either by way of promising galamseyers more galamsey when they ever win power or to do what they did yesterday in the press conference to besmirch the character of the people cited in the document on the weight of simple claims,” his tweet read in part.
The last time the presidency reacted to the report was via a statement over the weekend, alleging that the document was not official and that it contained a catalogue of grievances of Prof. Frimpong-Boateng and could best be described as hearsay.
The Presidency also tagged the document as not being an official report before Cabinet as it was submitted in an informal way.
“At the outset, it must be pointed out that the document being discussed was not an official report formally delivered to the Office of the President. On the contrary, it can only be rightly referred to as a catalogue of personal grievances and claims made by Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, intended to respond to some issues he faced as Chairperson of the IMCIM.”
“The document was handed to the Chief of Staff at the Office of the President on March 19th 2021, in an informal meeting, where Prof. Frimpong-Boateng complained about public attacks and criticisms made about his tenure as Chairperson of the IMCIM,” the statement read.
GhanaWeb has been unable, so far, to verify the referral of the report to the police CID.
Read Ahiagbah’s full post below:
The pointlessness of the NDC’s press conference yesterday is legendary. The Al Jazeera documentary has been effectively discredited so, I wonder why they were talking spiritedly about it.
On Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng’s document, as a party, we support the President’s prompt referral of the document to the CID, for an independent investigation. That is the democratic way, and the NDC is fully aware.
The fight against galamsey is existential, but sadly the NDC has never seen it as such. The NDC sees it first as politics, an avenue to canvass votes either by way of promising galamseyers more galamsey when they ever win power or to do what they did yesterday in the press conference to besmirch the character of the people cited in the document on the weight of simple claims.
The individuals especially, the Information Minister, has responded to state his innocence, but the NDC simply refused to acknowledge it or be restrained it. Instead, the NDC went full hog to display their pictures as though they have been found culpable of anything.
What would it have cost the NDC to have waited for the CID to complete its investigation and render its report for public scrutiny? Perhaps, the NDC is not aware that President Akufo-Addo has referred Prof. Boateng’s report to the CID.
The NPP, unlike the NDC, is committed to the fight against galamsey, and thus far has made considerable gains. But certainly, there is a lot more that needs to be done and all of us must pinch in. It is my humble appeal to all Ghanaians to get involved by reporting galamsey activities, learn about its dire implications for our very existence, and on that basis speak objectively against galamsey.
The NDC must learn to keep certain things above partisan politics and galamsey is one of such things. We know the NDC’s record on galamsey is criminal, to put it mildly. The fight against galamsey proceeds without fear or favor. Let’s all get involve less the partisanship that often weakens the cooperation we need to triumph.
Please watch the attached NDC galamsey video, and I am sure you conclude with me that the NDC needs to get serious with the fight against galamsey. Their double standard on a matter as serious as galamsey is sickening.
The co-chair of the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Dr. Steve Manteaw, has expressed his discontent with the wayPresident Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has dealt with illegal small-scale mining, often known as galamsey.
Dr. Steve Manteaw criticised the president for delaying the investigation into the 2021 report produced by Professor Frimpong Boateng, a former minister of environment, science, technology, and innovation and the former chair of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), in an interview with Neat FM on April 26, 2023.
“…a president who has sworn to fight against galamsey…a former cabinet minister has given you a hint on what is happening for you to take a step…but it seems that this president doesn’t care about anything.
And this is my greatest worry because, all that is going on under his government is a written history, which would not affect only him but the entire generation to come, and gradually this president is going down in history as the worse president we have ever had.
“When it comes to corruption, then he will say if you want to lay an allegation bring evidence, my brother we have state agencies that are in charge of investigations but as a citizen, if I give you thumps up about an issue, then you tell me to go and investigate and bring evidence, how?
If you are somebody who is serious, the moment you hear something you will let the security agencies take charge,you won’t demand evidence because you have people that we have paid to do that job,” he said.
Dr. Manteaw added that the President appears not to care about the negative impact of the galamsey activity on the environment and the nation’s sustainability.
He added that the President’s inaction may go down in history as one of the worst leadership failures in Ghana. He also lamented the President’s response to corruption allegations.
“…when you look at the things that Frimpong Boateng said in his report, a lot of it bothers on time and national security, it bothers on the sustainability on the national environment, the environment in which our lives is sustained, my brother just look at our water bodies, and you claim that someone has brought a report and alleging some of your appointees are involved in galamsey, then you will ignore in the name of the person not passing through the due process, then you the president I believe you don’t know your work,” he added.
His remarks follow a response from the Office of the President to a 37-page report by Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, accusing some government employees and some top officials at the Presidency of engaging in galamsey and frustrating his fight against the menace as the former chair of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM).
A statement, the Office of the President indicated that the report was not an official report formally delivered to the presidency.
It described the 37-page report as an of personal grievances by Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, intended to respond to some issues he faced as Chairperson of the IMCIM.
Commissioner of CHRAJ, Joseph Whittal, has disclosed that former Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, had intentions of going into mining.
Speaking in an interview, he explained that the Professor had genuine (legal) concessions for the extraction of minerals, however, he was unable to operate at the sites due to community violence.
“We investigated allegations made against Prof Frimpong-Boateng. We went in and did a very thorough investigation, came out with our report, a 116-page report, and the offshoot is that he was not involved in any illegal mining concessions,” he said in an interview with TV3 on Tuesday, April 25.
“He had genuine concessions which he had difficulties even starting because of community violence against his company.”
This follows allegations made against the Professor to the effect that he is involved in illegal mining, which also follow an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) report he authored.
The said report indicts a number of government officials including Information Minister, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, a former Presidential Staffer, Charles Bissue, NPP Stalwart, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko as either being involved in illegal mining popularly known as galamsey or interfering in the fight against illegal mining.
“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 had more resources than other candidates.
However, some of the persons mentioned in the report have denied the claims. Following the release of the report, Charles Bissue, who is the Former Secretary of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) accused Prof Frimpong Boateng’s associates of engaging in galamsey.
According to Mr Bissue, a number of them including Francis Owusu Achiaw, Mike Gizo and Kwabena Boakye, are all involved in galamsey.
“I am also disappointed in Prof Frimpong Boateng to the extent that he has people around him who were doing the same thing [illegal mining],” he said in an interview on JoyNews.
He said Prof Boateng has not been consistent and truthful to Ghanaians; explaining that the former Minister was not factual in his reportage on the missing excavators.
“At the time he said 500 excavators were missing, I called him and I said Prof that is not factual. You have actually sent about three reports to the National Security Council and the report that you sent reported that we do not have up to even 300 excavators so why 500?
“I called him and he said he knew what he was doing and then three or four years down the line, you come back to say that no excavators were missing.”
A former representative for Tema East, Titus Glover, stated that all parties involved must work together to combat unlawful small-scale mining (Galamsey).
The government is involved, Chiefs, the media and civil society are all involved, he said while speaking on the Big Issue on TV3 Wednesday April 26.
He further admitted that fighting the menace has been a daunting task however, the President and his government are determined to continue to war against the practice.
The former Deputy Transport Minister further urged the president to sack “all persons who are making his work difficult.”
He indicated the criticisms aroundgalamsey do not go to the people who making the work of the President difficult rather, they go to the President and the Vice President.
Titus Glover said he is not comfortable when the President and the Vice are constantly attacked for the galamsey menace.
A former member of parliament for Tema East, Titus Glover, has advised President Akufo-Addo to sack anyone who has been found to be interfering with the fight against illicit small-scale mining (galamsey).
Mr Titus Glover indicated that criticisms over galamsey issues are directedly blamed on the President and the Vice President whereas some persons have been put in charge of ensuring that the menace is nipped in the bud.
The former Deputy Transport Minister said he feels uncomfortable when the President and the Vice are constantly attacked for the galamsey menace.
He further indicated that the fight is a collective responsibility of all stakeholders.
The government is involved, Chiefs, the media and civil society are all involved, he said while speaking on the Big Issue on TV3 Wednesday April 26.
He further admitted that fighting the menace has been a daunting task however, the President and his government are determined to continue to war against the practice.
His comments come on the heels of the public brawl involving a former Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, and Chairperson of the erstwhile Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM),Professor Frimpong-Boateng and some government officials over galamsey.
Prof Frimpong-Boateng in his report on the IMCIM cited severalgovernment officials of allegedly involved in galamsey.
However, the Presidency said the report of the IMCIM could only be rightly referred to as a catalogue of personal grievances and claims by Prof Frimpong-Boateng.
The seat of government said the document was handed to the Chief of Staff at the Office of the President on March 19th 2021, in an informal meeting, where Prof. Frimpong-Boateng complained about public attacks and criticisms made about his tenure as Chairperson of the IMCIM. This was after Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s tenure as Minister had not been renewed by the President of the Republic in his second term.
“The document did not have a transmittal or cover letter nor, indeed, an addressee, such as to suggest that it was submitted to the Chief of Staff for action. It is noteworthy that the IMCIM was a creature of Cabinet, and any formal report on its activities would, normally, be submitted to Cabinet through the Cabinet Secretary, or directly to the President of the Republic as Chairperson of Cabinet. Till date, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng has done neither,” the statement said.
It added “It is important also to point out that, whilst Prof. Frimpong-Boateng makes serious allegations against some government appointees, as having been involved in, supporting or interfering with the fight against illegal mining, not a single piece of evidence was adduced or presented to enable the claims to be properly investigated.
“Indeed, the allegations contained in the document are at best hearsay. It is instructive that since Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s meeting with the Chief of Staff in March, 2021, he has taken no step nor acted in furtherance of the matters contained in the document.”
It further stated that the President’s commitment to fighting illegal mining is unassailable, and the Office of the President welcomes any information on illegal mining activities which provides a credible basis for investigations to be conducted by the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service.
An aspiring New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, has said that if he were President Akufo-Addo, he would have promptly taken actions regardingProfessor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng‘s galamsey report.
In a report presented to the Chief of Staff in March 2021, the former Minister of Science, Environment, Technology and Innovation accused some NPP officials of engaging in and promoting illegal mining.
But Kwabena Agyepong, a former General Secretary of the NPP seeking to be elected the party’s presidential candidate for the 2024 presidential election, says action on the report should be taken immediately, adding that the report should not have been on the desk of the President for two years without attention.
Speaking to Nhyira FM’s Nana Jantuah on Kuro Yi Mu Nsem, Kwabena Agyepong said “that report will not lie on my desk for two years without attention if indeed he did.”He however said Prof. Frimpong-Boateng could have come out boldly to tell the President to implement some recommendations in the report and resign if the President failed to do so.
“Why has Prof taken so long? Now that you are out people would say it is because you are no more (in government) that’s why you are coming out now. I would have expected that when he was the Minister then, the firm action would be to come out to Cabinet that I want to do this and that and if the President says he wouldn’t agree, then he resigns,” he opined.
Meanwhile, Mr. Agyepong says he will put a moratorium on surface mining, including community mining, to regenerate the forests in the country should he become President.He says the only mining activity he would approve as President is deep mining which involves huge capital to make sure mining is done sustainably.“I have said that mining has not been good for Africa. What has Ghana gotten from mining? Go to where we mine in the country and you will see abject poverty. I don’t like the galamsey at all,” he said.
Charles Nii Teiko Tagoe, a presidential staffer has reacted to claims leveled against him in the IMCIM report authored by Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.
He has denied complicity in illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) after he was mentioned as part of Jubilee House staff engaged in galamsey.
Teiko and others were mentioned in the 2021 report by the former minister for Science, Technology and Innovation Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, which report was recently leaked to the media.
A number of people mentioned in the report have rejected the contents of the report in whole or partially with others demanding a retraction of the allegations against them.
In his case, Teiko Tagoe issued an April 21, 2023 statement in which he denied having anything to do with galamsey.
He, however, disclosed the one occasion on which he contacted the minister who was then the chairman of government’s anti-galamsey committee, the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM).
“Let me state categorically that I have no involvement in galamsey,” his statement read.
It continued: “In 2019, I spoke to Prof. Frimpong-Boateng regarding an excavator being transported on a low-bed vehicle on a highway. He requested details, and I provided the information. However, I did not follow up on the request, and I have no knowledge of what happened with the excavator.
“It is unfortunate that Prof. Frimpong-Boateng would make comments about me in his report. I want to make it clear that I have nothing to do with illegal mining,” the statement added.
His full statement is below:
My fellow Ghanaians, I wish to address recent media reports attempting to link me to illegal small-scale mining activities, popularly known as galamsey. These reports are based on a statement made by Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, the former Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining.
Let me state categorically that I have no involvement in galamsey. In 2019, I spoke to Prof. Frimpong-Boateng regarding an excavator being transported on a low-bed vehicle on a highway. He requested details, and I provided the information. However, I did not follow up on the request, and I have no knowledge of what happened with the excavator.
It is unfortunate that Prof. Frimpong-Boateng would make comments about me in his report. I want to make it clear that I have nothing to do with illegal mining. I urge the media and the public to disregard the portions of the report that pertain to me and treat it with the contempt it deserves.
I believe in the rule of law, and I am committed to supporting efforts to clamp down on illegal mining activities in the country. I remain committed to the development of Ghana and the well-being of its citizens.
A statement available to Angelonline.com.gh released Monday, April 24, 2023, and co-signed by the Communication Officer and Constituency Secretary of the Abuakwa South NPP, Felix Nyarko Acheampong and Julius Okyere, said the executives noted with grave concern the claims made by the former minister.
Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, a former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, who once chaired the government’s Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), in his 37 pages report to the chief of staff on the fight against illegal mineral exploitation said a party youth organizer had a concession closer to the president’s house in Kibi.
The Youth Organizer in question, according to the document, is engaged in illegal mining in an area close to the President’s house, thereby affecting parts of the First Gentleman’s garden, a phenomenon he said was on the blind side of the President.
However, the executives expressing their grave concern about the claims in the statement stated categorically that the publication by Professor Frimpong Boateng is “falsehood” and only sought to dent the ruling government’s name.
“The executives wish to unequivocally state, that this does not only form part of that suspicious grand scheme by Professor Boateng, to use the state’s power to settle personal scores, probably, to punish the President for not reappointing him Minister of State in his second term, but also, smacks of a grand agenda to give our opponents undeserving arsenals to throw back at us in the run-up to the 2024 elections.
In the first place, to state that “the Youth Organizer of the NPP in Kyebi” is involved in any kind of illegality, is only vague, as such allegation falls short of indicating what level of the party structure the said Youth Organizer occupied at the time of the supposed incident. Was he/she a Polling Station, Constituency, Regional or National Youth Organizer? There is nothing like a local Youth Organizer anywhere in the NPP Constitution.
Indeed, if his reference to Kyebi is meant to indicate that the supposed wrongdoing is attributable to a certain Constituency Youth Organizer, then the Constituency executives wish to emphatically state, that the then Constituency Youth Organizer has never been associated whatsoever, with galamsey operation; hence, rendering this allegation short of substance,” the statement contains.
Setting the record straight, the statement noted that the very location of the President’s Kyebi residence makes it impossible for any illegal mining operation to take place even close to it except for those who do not know the house like Professor Frimpong Boateng, apparently.
It emphasised that the President’s house is not “obscured as it is closely surrounded by many other houses” and for that matter to “suggest that an illegal mining operation has taken place near the walled house to the extent that it affected parts of a supposed garden in the house, only lives much to be desired about what method at all was used for such operation.
To this end, the NPP Abuakwa South disclosed that the President does not even have a garden at his Kyebi residence therefore, for the Professor to state that a section of his garden was affected “is nothing but palpable falsehood.”
According to them the Learned Professor would have perhaps, been forgiven if he had only maintained that such report got to him through a phone call placed to him by one Eric Antwi of the office of the President.
“But to have continued to say that he personally followed up to see with his very eyes, the supposed incident, simply casts a huge slur on the integrity of both the Former Minister and his work as Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee,” it stressed.
The Abuakwa Soth NPP executives used the medium and entreated well-meaning Ghanaians to disregard the accusations and called on the media to go to the president’s residence in Kyebi to fact-check Professor Frimpong-Boateng’s claims.
A man, Agya Owusu, whose mining equipment were burnt has alleged that Joseph Albert Quarm, a former member of parliament forNkwanta, sold to him an unlawful mining site concession.
According to Agya Owusu, soldiers came to stop him from mining and burnt his mining equipment; saying that his concession was illegal because it was close to a river.
Speaking to the media at the mining site in a viral video sighted by GhanaWeb, Agya Owusu said that he informed Albert Quarm of what transpired but the former MP has done nothing to help him up to date.
He added that he sent the documents on the mining concession to Accra for authentication after which he will decide on the action to take against the former MP.
“One of the soldiers told me that having a concession close to a river is illegal so they had to burn my equipment.
“I called the person who sold me the land to inform him of what has transpired but up to date he has said nothing meaningful for me, he has not even said sorry.
“The person who sold the concession to me is the former MP, Prof Quarm,” he said in Twi.
Background
A former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, Prof Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, named some former and current members of parliament as well as top government officials who are allegedly involved in illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) in Ghana.
Portions of a report on illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) in Ghana by Prof Frimpong Boateng, indicated that these MPs and government officials were either directly involved in galamsey or were using their power to protect relatives who were involved in the menace.
The 36-page report, which Prof Frimpong addressed to the Chief of Staff and the Ghana Police Service, according to myjoyonline.com, implicated the former MP for Manso Nkwanta, Joseph Albert Quarm.
“He (the former NPP MP) used his position as a member of the Minerals Commission to acquire several dozens of large-scale concessions in his district, ostensibly for community mining purposes. He ended up selling these concessions to private individuals, including party members for GH¢200,000 per concession.
Joseph Albert Quarm has, however, firmly refuted the claims made by Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.
Speaking with Aduanaba Kofi Ampong on Ezra Morning show on Friday, monitored by GhanaWeb, Quarm called out the claims by Frimpong Boateng’s report as mere false accusations that seek to tarnish his image.
According to him, the Minerals Commission and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources legally established community mining in his constituency and he doesn’t know if that was what Frimpong Boateng’s report has captured as illegal operations by him.
“I don’t even have one concession not even to talk of dozen concessions sold by me, as stated in his report. He doesn’t have any substantive evidence on his statement so I’m challenging him to come out with evidence,” Quarm said,
“I do expect him to retract and apologize over his false reportage that seeks to denigrate my reputation, else he will have to meet in court to prove otherwise,” he added.
The former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation and ex-chair of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has shared a video of illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) site allegedly linked to the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah.
Prof Frimpong-Boateng, who shared the link to the video in a statement he issued while responding to the information minister’s reactions to a report on government officials behind galamsey in Ghana he (Frimpong-Boateng) released, said that he received the video from a constituent of Oppong Nkrumah, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ofoase-Ayirebi constituency.
— The Independent Ghana (@independent_gh) April 25, 2023
The former science and technology minister said that even though he does not want to believe the claim made in the video about the ownership of the galamsey site, Oppong Nkrumah must take the necessary actions to stop the menace happening close to his hometown.
The man who recorded the video can be heard alleging that the galamsey site belongs to Oppong Nkrumah and he (the minister) has hired some Chinese people to work for him.
He said that the illegal mining site was in Akyem Brenasi, along the Pra River.
“He (Oppong Nkrumah) has brought the Chinese here to work for him. This is what they have done to the Pra River,” the man said as he was taking a shot of the river.
“This place is called Akyem Brenasi, along the Pra River, there are about 15 excavators here,” the narrator added in Twi.
Executives of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Eastern Region’s Abuakwa South constituency have refuted allegations made in the contentious report of the former Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) that galamsey was taking place directly in the garden of President Akufo-Addo’s home in Kyebi.
Contrary to claims made in the report written by Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation and chairman of the IMCIM, no anonymous youth organizer of the NPP in Kyebi had engaged in illegal mining in a region close to the president’s home, according to a statement released on Tuesday and signed by Felix Nyarko Acheampong, the party’s constituency communications officer, and Julius Okyere, the constituency secretary.
“In the first place, to state that “the Youth Organizer of the NPP in Kyebi” is involved in any kind of illegality, is only vague, as such allegation falls short of indicating what level of the party structure the said Youth Organizer occupied at the time of the supposed incident. Was he/she a Polling Station, Constituency, Regional or National Youth Organizer? There is nothing like a local Youth Organizer anywhere in the NPP Constitution.
“Indeed, if his reference to Kyebi is meant to indicate that the supposed wrongdoing is attributable to a certain Constituency Youth Organizer, then the Constituency executives wish to emphatically state, that the then Constituency Youth Organizer has never been associated whatsoever, with galamsey operation; hence, rendering this allegation short of substance.
“Secondly, the very location of the President’s Kyebi residence in itself, makes it impossible for any illegal mining operation to take place even close to it. Except those who do not know the house, everyone would attest to the fact that the President’s house is not obscured, as it is closely surrounded by many other houses. For that matter, to suggest that an illegal mining operation has taken place near the walled house, to the extend that it affected parts of a supposed garden in the house, only lives much to be desired about what method at all was used for such operation.
“To add to the above, the President does not even have a garden, so to speak, in his Kyebi residence; therefore, to state that a section of his garden was affected, is nothing but palpable falsehood. The Learned Professor would have, perhaps, been forgiven if he had only maintained that such report got to him through a phone call placed to him by Mr. Eric Antwi of the office of the President; but to have continued to say that he personally followed up to see with his very eyes, the supposed incident, simply casts a huge slur on the integrity of both the Former Minister and his work as Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee. We entreat well meaning media houses to come to the President’s residence in Kyebi to check and double check the facts on the ground, and compare same with the allegations contained in that section of Professor Frimpong-Boateng’s report.
Several names of high-ranked personalities have been named in Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s 37-page report on Galamsey.
The 37-page report implicated some New Patriotic Party (NPP) members, including MPs and top government officials, as having been involved in the galamsey menace. Portions of the report indicated that these MPs and government officials were either directly involved in galamsey or were using their power to protect relations who were involved in the menace.
One of the individuals indicted in the report was Mr Gabby Otchere-Darko who the former minister recounted called to question his decision to order the dislodgment of equipment of a mining company, Imperial Heritage, which Prof. Frimpong-Boateng argues was mining illegally with a prospecting license in forest reserves.
Below is the profile of Emmanuel Donald Entsuah owner of Imperial Heritage
Mr Entsuah is a professional in Marketing. He has over twenty years of experience in developing and executing marketing strategies.
He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration and a Diploma in Business Studies from the Takoradi Polytechnic.
He has a worth of experience as he is currently the General Manager of Ghana Canada Mining Company Limited, Director for Unique Starpoint Company Limited and was the Chief Operations Officer for Class Media Group amongst other several business acumen.
According to Kennedy Agyapong, he sued one Galamsey lord called Emmanuel Donald Entsuah and won the case but it still haven’t stopped him from his Galamsey business.
He says the guy is currently in the forest going on with his Galamsey business because of the protection he gets from some NPP bigwigs.
Herald’s report
The Herald’s investigations into the involvement of the Ghana Armed Forces in government’s fight against illegal mining, has suggested that the enviable record of the Ghana’s Army, is being dragged in the mud by some top military officers with a long term implication for the reputation of the country.
This paper’s investigation shows that, Ghana Army, is not fighting illegal mining, but rather encouraging the destruction of Ghana’s environment, leaving behind polluted water bodies and deforestation by providing security to the very companies which are involved in the acts.
The companies, have sometimes acted in a manner that suggested “bribery” of Ghana’s military to secure their operations which elements of the Akufo-Addo government, including ministers had at various times raised issues with, continue unabated.
One of such companies is the Heritage Imperial Mining Company Ltd, which have had its activities brought to the attentions of the dissolved Inter-Ministerial Committee on Galamsey in 2019, then led by Prof.
Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, as well as the then sector Minister for Land and Natural Resources, Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh.
This paper’s investigation, has captured another company, Ghana Canada Aleska Mining sometimes known as C&G Aleksa Mines.
Interestingly, officials of the Ghana Canada Aleska Mining or C&G Aleksa Mines, have been captured as linked to another mining company by name Heritage Imperial Company Ltd, which had been cited to be behind the mining activities in Tontokrom, where Ghana’s Army and some of its top bosses have been captured as aiding the wanton devastation of the environment.
In particular, Donald Emmanuel Entsuah, has been found to the Managing Director of Heritage Imperial Company Ltd and also operates under the Ghana Canada Aleska Mining or C&G Aleksa Mines.
The Herald’s investigation revealed that Donald Emmanuel Entsuah, before venturing into mining and living an ostentatious lifestyle, used to work for Viasat 1, a Ghanaian television channel owned by the Swedish listed media group, Modern Times Group, which has since re-branded to Kwesé Free Sports in 2016.
Those who know him well said he is a frequent visitor to the Labone Coffee shop and mostly seen in the company some prominent journalists with ties to the Akufo-Addo government.
Interestingly, in October 2018, C&G Aleksa Mines fulfilled major Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) to the military.
The project, at the Southern Command of the Ghana Armed Forces, at Teshie in Accra, C&G Aleksa Mines, said was a way of giving back to society what society contributes to it.
The project involved re-construction and asphalting of the main entrance road that leads to the administration block; asphalting of visitors’ car park, as well as, tarring of the entire 300metre square Parade Square, all of which had been in very deplorable state for a long time, hitherto.
The work also included installation of CCTV cameras and other security fittings at the Command, at cost of a whopping two million Ghana Cedis.
A news report on the project at the time said that its completion has visibly transformed the military base, particularly, the front view.
Interestingly, the projects had already been handed over to the authorities of the Southern Command, led by Brigadier-General Thomas Oppong-Peprah, who is currently the Army Commander with a rank of a Major-General.
Coincidentally, Major General Oppong-Peprah and the General Officer Commanding, Central Command, Brigadier General J.A Aphour, are named as beneficiaries of Tontokrom illegal mining site.
The site is being managed by Heritage Imperial Company Ltd under the protection of personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF).
A reporter with Star FM, had reported a visit to the Southern Command on Thursday, September 25, 2018, the front view arena now looks extremely marvelous and firm- showing there has been major transformation.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company, Simon Aydin, when contacted, said the project was in line with the company’s civic responsibilities to society, which are being undertaken at various sectors, mostly at its mining enclaves in the Wassa Amenfi area.
Simon Aydin, had mentioned that plans are far advanced to commence the second phase of the project at the Southern Command which involves construction of all link-roads within the Command.
Mr Aydin explains, the company is determined and very committed to contribute its quota to society, as a responsible and law-abiding entity, in order to lessen the burden on the government.
He assured that the company would not renege on its corporate social responsibilities, adding that, these interventions form the “core values” of the company and are in the heart of Management.
It was further reported that the Teshie Southern Command of the GAF was not the only place that has benefitted from the mining firm’s social responsibility projects, as many communities in the company’s catchment areas of operation, such as, Sraha, Dwobo, Ayem, Amanase, Akatrika, as well as, Ajakamanso all in the Western region, have been supported and still benefiting.
For instance, the six-unit classroom facility the company promised the Amanase community is near completion while also a clinic was about to start as soon as the completion of the school.
Dwobo community also has asked the company to help them complete their Community Centre project, which is currently under construction.
Aside that project, the community also benefited from cash donations ranging from GH¢60, 000 to GH¢100, 000.
At Ayem community, C&G Aleksa Ltd, is again undertaking KVIP toilet facility, which is under construction, in addition to a cash amount of GH¢80, 000 given to the community.
Again, it was reported that the company was constructing in Akatrika community, a major bridge after it had dug boreholes for that community alongside other immeasurable contributions made to the people.
C&G Aleksa had also donated two incubators to Kokrokoo Charities amounting to US$20,000.
The opposition National Democratic Congress is holding a press conference in reaction to a recent development on illegal mining.
Key among the issues addressed is the Al Jazeera documentary which reveals that over $40 million worth of gold is smuggled out of the country annually.
The NDC is also speaking on the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) report authored by former Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.
The conference is being held at the party’s National Headquarters in Accra.
The MP for Builsa South, Dr. Clement Apaak, has called on government to halt all mining activities in the country.
This comes on the back of a series of press statements and interviews by persons accused in the galamsey report by the former Minister for Environment, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng.
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng who is a former Chairman of the now defunct Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, in his report, accused some bigwigs of the Akufo-Addo government of interfering in his fight against illegal small-scale mining locally known as galamsey or being engaged in galamsey.
However, the Presidency in reacting said claims in the report are a catalogue of grievances of Prof. Frimpong-Boateng and could best be described as hearsay.
The Presidency also stated that the document was not an official report before Cabinet as it was submitted in an informal way.
Commenting on the development, the Builsa South lawmaker has suggested that at least two years or more ban on mining will help in resolving mining challenges in the country.
“We must demand a total ban on all forms of mining immediately, at least for 2 or more years. In the meantime a national forum led by CSOs should be initiated to determine the wayforward. This is the only reasonable option available given the levels of official complicity,” Dr. Apaak stated.
Meanwhile, the Minority Leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson says Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s report to the President on the failed work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, which was set up by President Akufo-Addo to fight the illegal mining menace, confirms that the whole “fight” was a fraudulent one.
According to him, it was shrouded in a well-calculated ruse to enable key government officials and functionaries at the Presidency to dabble in the very illicit business of ‘galamsey.’
“Despite the President placing a moratorium on April 1, 2017, suspending all artisanal and small-scale mining in the country for a total period of one year and three months, we are told that in 2018, the government, acting through the Forestry Commission and Ministry of Lands, somehow contrived to give out all forest reserves in Ghana for mining activities.
“To confirm the grand collusion, despite a Cabinet directive in 2019 to suspend the issuance of new licenses and permits, more illegal miners, including Chinese gangs, entered Ghana’s forest reserves with the help of government officials, and the destruction of Ghana’s forests and environment continued unabated,” Dr. Ato Forson who’s MP for Ajumako Enyan Essiam said in a Facebook post.
The minority leader in parliament, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, has stated that the government’s efforts to combat illegal mining (galamsey), are mocked by the former chairman of the disbanded Inter-ministerial Committee against Illegal Mining, Prof. Frimpong Boateng’s, report.
In a Facebook post, Dr. Forson said the revelation by Prof. Frimpong is strongly indicative that the galamsey fight was nothing but a charade. He plainly describes it as fraudulent.
“Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s report to the President on failed work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, which was set up by President Akufo-Addo to fight the illegal mining menace, confirms that the whole fight was a fraudulent one”, he wrote.
The report authored by Prof. Frimpong-Boateng also a former Minister of Environment in March 2021 and handed over to the Chief of Staff cited a number of top officials in the Akufo-Addo government accused of either being engaged in galamsey or interfered in the work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining.
The Presidency in a rejoinder argued that despite the serious allegations Prof. Frimpong-Boateng made against some government appointees, not a single piece of evidence was adduced or presented to enable the claims to be properly investigated.
It insists that the report was based on hearsay. But Dr. Ato Forson says, government’s action so far is a tacit endorsement of its corrupt appointees.
“It was shrouded in a well-calculated ruse to enable key government officials and functionaries at the Presidency to dabble in the very illicit business ofgalamsey.”
Meanwhile, the Minority leader is pushing for a full-scale investigation into the revelations.
“The revealing issues and several others in the damning report call for a national probe”, he added.
The Executive Director of the Institute of Liberty and Policy Innovation (ILAPI), has opined that fighting galamsey, is almost impossible.
According to Mr. Peter Bismark Kwofie, corruption is tough to combat, and galamsey would follow in the same footsteps.
The policy expert stated on Rainbow Radio 87.5 FM’s Frontline that we do not have to deceive ourselves.
He stated, “I want to state on record that the fight against galamsey, like corruption, is never-ending. No amount of institutions established to combat corruption and galamsey will be successful. We have every law. We have all of the state institutions. We have mining rules in place, yet people are still mining illegally. It is really straightforward and simple to do. However, these laws have been broken.”
He was replying to Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s newest findings and the alleged involvement of some key government officials.`
He added that “The Frimpong-Boateng report is not new. As a think tank, we conducted various investigations and discovered that chiefs and politicians are members of the conspiracy. According to a CDD-Ghana study, some politicians indulge in galamsey during election seasons to raise funds for their campaigns. Some clergy, media personnel, and security personnel are among those involved.
However, political influence has grown. We notice that attorneys are now involved. It informs you that fighting galamsey will be incredibly difficult,” he continued.
He defined the war against galamsey as both political and economic, making it difficult for anyone to risk their presidency in the fight.
He stated that some political leaders are so powerful that dropping them is tough.
He also mentioned that the cultural factor and the role of chiefs in galamsey fighting cannot be neglected.
On the question of economics, he stated what the resolution would be in ensuring that people involved in galamsey are offered alternative livelihoods.
One of his disappointments was the report’s failure to identify anyone detained and prosecuted for galamsey.
He would have been relieved to learn that some people had been arrested and prosecuted.
He emphasised that while committing to fight galamsey provides hope, it is not the key tool in the struggle and that the president’s pledge to put his presidency on the line was political hyperbole.
He claimed that the administration had no clear policy in place to combat galamsey.
The Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, Sam Nartey George, has expressed shock about the constituency youth organizer in Kyebi, the hometown of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, being named among the key players in unlawful small-scale mining in the area.
Sam George was reacting to the report authored by a former Minister of Science and Technology, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, on galamsey which disclosed that President Akufo-Addo’s yard was partially excavated by the constituency youth organizer who was looking for gold.
“But you know what is very telling, and it is the stuff of Hollywood fiction but in Ghana it is our reality that the president’s own residence in Kyebi, his garden was dug up…Portions of President Akufo-Addo’s garden was dug up in search of gold by the constituency youth organizer,” he said.
In the report, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng listed various powerful individuals from the nation who were complicit in the threat and meddled with the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), of which he served as Chair.
The outspoken MP, appalled by some of the revelations in the report, while speaking on the issue on The Key Point on TV3, questioned the use of security, emphasizing that the president’s home is a security zone thus needed to be guarded at all cost.
“Where was security? The president’s home in his hometown at Kyebi must be a security zone. Where was his security that his garden got dug up by his own youth organizer searching gold and the president didn’t know about it? And then Frimpong-Boateng had to go and get a bulldozer and excavator to go and reclaim the land and revegetate the president’s garden so that the president can come home and have a garden. Jesus Christ!”
The legislator stressed that the report should not be taken on the surface, noting that the issue must be dealt with, with all seriousness.
He also criticised the former head of national security, Captain (rtd) Edmund Kojo Koda, accusing him of being careless and supporting perpetrators when he was supposed to protect the country from the canker.
In his words, “The persons who have been mentioned…and you see Frimpong-Boateng’s report why you cannot take it as a literary piece of work but as something serious. It’s the kinds of names he mentioned. Captain Koda is head of national security. He is literally responsible for the president’s security. Excavators are arrested doing galamsey, doing illegal mining and Captain Koda calls the police station in the Eastern region where the excavators that were seized were sent…and he orders the police to release the excavators because the persons whose excavators it is, is another MP, a sitting MP who is his brother. So familial benefit over national good.”
In the shocking report written by a former Minister of Science and Technology, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, a prominent member of the NPP, has been mentioned in relation to his involvement in illicit mining.
Gabby Otchere-Darko was charged with interfering with the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining’s (IMCIM) activities in the report by Prof. Frimpong-Boateng.
He detailed that at the time, there was a suspension on the issuance of licenses for operation in forest reserves, Mr. Otchere-Darko jumped to the defence of a company that was said to be actively destroying the environment.
Following this development, a tweet from Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko in 2017 popped up with regards to what he said about illegal small-scale mining popularly termed as galamsey.
The president’s cousin was confident that the Akufo-Addo-led government was going to eliminate the canker of galamsey which had destroyed the nation’s water bodies and depleted lands.
The tweet dated April 6, 2017 read; “Posterity shall not forgive Akufo-Addo and our generation if we don’t win the war against galamsey.”
The message generated mixed reactions from Ghanaians. While some lauded the pronouncement and hoped they were not mere words put together, others were of the view that it was only “cheap talk”.
Meanwhile,Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, has said he did no wrong in defending a company cited in the bombshell report authored by Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.
Director of Communications for the opposition National Democratic Congress, Sammy Gyamfi has hit back at NPP stalwart, Gabby Otchere-Darko over his response to the IMCIM report authored by Prof Frimpong-Boateng.
Mr Gyamfi rubbished the justification given by Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko in response to allegations of interference made against him by the former Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Frimpong Boateng.
According to him, Mr Otchere-Darko’s argument of acting professionally as a lawyer when he called Prof. Frimpong-Boateng on phone does not conform to the ethics of the legal profession.
“He said he is a lawyer and that if his client had been asked to stop work because they are engaged in alleged illegality he had a right to act through a phone call. Which law school or course thought you that as a lawyer when a minister stops your client, a mining company from working for going beyond what their prospecting licences permit you pick a phone to call the minister?” he questioned during an interview on Adom TV.
Prof Frimpong-Boateng in a 36-page report recalls how Gabby Otchere-Darko, a cousin of the president and an influential member of the ruling NPP, called him on phone to question his decision to order for the dislodgment of equipment of a Mining Company Imperial Heritage which Prof. Frimpong Boateng argues was mining illegally with a prospecting license in forest reserves.
In response however, Gabby pointed out that he was only acting in his capacity as a senior partner of Africa Legal Associates and legal representative of the company.
But according to Sammy Gyamfi, Mr Otchere-Darko’s decision to call the then minister on phone was nothing short of influence peddling.
“[As a lawyer] you write a letter to the institution that stopped your client. Once you start picking up phones and calling… If he was not the cousin of President Akufo-Addo would have been able to call Prof Frimpong-Boateng on phone? Lawyers we don’t work with phones when it comes to government, you write a letter. The phone call he made was just to peddle his influence, he was flexing his power; he was trying to show the minister that the people you were touching are my clients, my peopled and I am the president’s cousin, the de facto prime minister,” Sammy Gyamfi who is also a legal practitioner argued.
The report by Prof. Frimpong Boateng was authored in March 2021 and details the challenges he faced during his tenure as chairperson of the erstwhile Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM).
The former minister in the report submitted to the Chief of State alleged that some officials of the government and political actors were actively involved in illegal mining,
He further accused some individuals of interfering in the fight against galamsey.
Meanwhile, the presidency despite failing to act or respond to the report which was submitted to the Chief of Staff some two years ago has reacted to the former minister’s claims after the report was recently leaked to the media.
According to the presidency, the document authored by the former minister is without supporting evidence despite the various allegations implicating government officials as being involved in illegal mining or interfering in the fight against same.
“Indeed, the allegations contained in the document are at best hearsay. It is instructive that since Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s meeting with the Chief of Staff in March, 2021, he has taken no step nor acted in furtherance of the matters contained in the document,” the presidency said in a statement dated April 22, 2023.
The presidency in the rejoinder dated Saturday, April 22, 2023, said “The document being discussed was not an official report formally delivered to the Office of the President. On the contrary, it can only be rightly referred to as a catalogue of personal grievances and claims made by Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, intended to respond to some issues he faced as Chairperson of the IMCIM.
“The document was handed to the Chief of Staff at the Office of the President on March 19th 2021, in an informal meeting, where Prof. Frimpong-Boateng complained about public attacks and criticisms made about his tenure as Chairperson of the IMCIM.”
According to the presidency, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s report did not have any official status and was not supported with any evidence despite the allegations contained in it.
“The document did not have a transmittal or cover letter nor, indeed, an addressee, such as to suggest that it was submitted to the Chief of Staff for action. It is noteworthy that the IMCIM was a creature of Cabinet, and any formal report on its activities would, normally, be submitted to Cabinet through the Cabinet Secretary, or directly to the President of the Republic as Chairperson of Cabinet. Till date, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng has done neither.
“It is important also to point out that, whilst Prof. Frimpong-Boateng makes serious allegations against some government appointees, as having been involved in, supporting or interfering with the fight against illegal mining, not a single piece of evidence was adduced or presented to enable the claims to be properly investigated,” the presidency noted.
Co-chair of the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Dr Steve Manteaw had described as a “charade” government’s fight against galamsey.
Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, April 22, 2023, he opined that the fight has been more of lip service than action oriented.
His comment follows the leaked report of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) authored by Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, in which a number of government officials have been named as having engaged in galamsey or interfered with the work of the Committee.
Commenting on the report, the Professor asserted that the fight has become difficult since there officials at the Presidency involved.
“But to the extent that at the level of the presidency, there’s a certain complicity, then it becomes very difficult to fight it. So I’ve always actually described the fight against Galamsey as a charade, and I’ve never really taken the president seriously, especially when he said he was putting his job on the line.
He further bemoaned the failure of President Akufo-Addo to act on the matter.
“Since 2021, when he received this report, what has he done about it? Not even a public expression of indignation at the revelations in this report and directing actions that will actually get to the bottom of the allegations contained in the report,” he said.
Meanwhile, the said officials including Charles Bissue , Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Lord Commey, among others have all denied the allegations.
Former secretary to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Mining (IMCIM), Charles Onuawonto Bissue, has vowed to make some damning revelations about Prof Frimpong-Boateng, following the release of the 2021 Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining report.
The report indicts many prominent personalities including government officials and members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Mr Bissue has called out Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng asking him to come clean with regards to illegal mining in the country.
Mr. Bissue, expressing his disappointment in his former boss, stated that Prof Frimpong-Boateng also had some dent to his name regarding the issue, adding that he’s aware he [Bissue] knows a lot.
Speaking as a guest on TV3’s Ghana Tonight, Bissue said “Prof. himself is not clean and he knows I know a lot. People like him should come out with the truth.”
His statement comes on the back of the former minister’s report on illegal small-scale mining.
The former Minister, while submitting a report on the work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), not only cited the challenges the committee faced, but also persons he believes contributed to the frustration of his work.
The report, which was addressed to the Chief of Staff and the Ghana Police, implicated some New Patriotic Party (NPP) members, including MPs and top government officials, as having been involved in the galamsey menace.
But Charles Bissue, who was once under fire from a TigerEyePi exposé which cited him for using his office for extortion, claimed that Prof Frimpong-Boateng did not present the entire facts on the menace in the report.
He made it clear that while he is aware of some of the reported facts, he is unaware of others.
Mr. Bissue was surprised that the report has become public after the Committee Chair was invited by the Criminals Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service for investigation in response to some of the contents of a report on the IMCIM submitted to the President and written by then Chairman, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.
“…And then you’re made the Chairman of a committee, you only come out to speak when you’ve been actually directed to the CID to be investigated, this is where my problem is.”
He added that “The facts are okay, it is not all of them…Even when the Anas exposé came out, Kweku Baako had the audacity to warn the president to be careful, these are things we have to look at because for me in the spirit of defending this country, I will always speak the truth and there are so many things that one day might come out but not to damage this country but individuals who seem to portray that they are protecting this country and are really not. So Prof, I am disappointed in him because he knew the whole truth about everything but he kept quiet.”
The Chairman of the dissolved Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has detailed how an NPP MP took mining concessions from locals and sold them to the Chinese.
The former MP for Manso Nkwanta Constituency in the Ashanti Region, Joseph Albert Quarm, is reported to have acquired several dozens of large-scale concessions in his district which he ended up selling to private individuals.
These Chinese nationals, according to the document titled “Report on the work of the IMCIM and the way forward”, invaded the forest with heavy machinery and mined gold and in the process degraded the forest, and farmlands. It added that cocoa farms were also destroyed without any compensation to traditional landowners.
“The Chief and opinion leader were unhappy with the invasion of the forest and farmland, as people used the forest resources sustainably without any prior information to chiefs and other traditional leaders,” the report noted.
Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng expressed bewilderment at the total disregard for the president’s commitment to protecting the environment as “many party officials from the National to the unit committee level have their friends, agents, relatives, financiers engaged in illegal mining.”
The former MP Joseph Albert Quarm is said to have lost his 2020 primaries due to his actions.
The Small-Scale Miners Association has called for sanctions against persons mentioned in the leaked report authored by former Environment Minister Prof. Frimpong-Boateng over the involvement of some top government officials in illegal mining.
According to General Secretary Godwin, the leaked report is not surprising because the Association collaborated with the inter-ministerial mining committee, and the allegations contained in the leaked report were made by some people.
“The report is not surprising. The names and people mentioned in the report were known to miners, and their names were mentioned, but there was no evidence to back up the claims at the time. However, if Prof. Frimpong-Biateng has included these allegations in his report, they are serious. He is not your typical person. He was the chairman of the ministerial committee. He has received several international awards, so his report is genuine. We are not surprised as an association.”
Fighting galamsey is a difficult task, according to him, because it is a multifaceted problem.
He claimed that when illegal miners are apprehended, chiefs, government officials, and politicians beg for their release.
“Some highly respected lawyers are also representing these illegal miners. Dome officials, who serve as gatekeepers in our institutions, have a responsibility to be concerned and drag these illegal miners to court, prosecute them, and imprison them for 15 to 20 years as a deterrent.”
He said successive governments have not been firm in dealing with illegal mining and especially when it is an election year, galamsey issues are not tackled by our leaders.
He went on to say that although we are pumping money in fighting galamsey, we have not really made significant impacts.
“We are pretending to be fighting galamsey, but we are not fighting it. People who usually try their best to fight it face opposition.”
Meanwhile, he has demanded that all those named in Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s report be investigated and punished.
“The names of some people were mentioned. I propose that the government look into the matter. This must occur so that we can be assured that the government remains committed and serious.”
Former minister of environment, science, technology, and innovation,Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, accused the current minister of information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, of being behind a plot to bring him down in his battle against unlawful small-scale mining, also known as galamsey.
In a report on illicit small-scale mining (galamsey) in Ghana, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng said that Oppong Nkrumah devised a scheme to sabotage him because of his struggle against the threat.
“…indeed, the facts are that it was Prof Boateng himself who wrote to the Ghana Police Service in January 2020 reporting the loss of some excavators and calling for an investigation. It was Prof Boateng himself who in subsequent media interviews mentioned that the number of excavators missing was about 500.
“Again, on or around February 20, 2020, it was Prof Boateng himself who at Parliament House (During interviews on the SONA) engaged in exchanges with the media about the said excavators and promised that they will be recovered.
“For the record, these are the matters that occasioned the media reports about Prof Boateng and the said excavators.Further, it was Prof Boateng himself who was later to be seen in a video making comments about the anti-galamsey fight and the release of excavators.”
He added “I Kojo Oppong Nkrumah was not responsible for his initial police report, his subsequent interviews, or any of the claims he made. To be clear, it was Prof Boateng’s own reports, interviews, and videos that generated his media challenges around the time. I am thus disappointed that he would, in this document, seek to blame me for the media reports,” the statement said.
What Prof Frimpong Boateng wrote about Oppong Nkrumah in his galamsey report:
A report by the Chairman of the dissolved Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo cited Information Minister, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah as scheming to run him down.
The 37-page report filed by the former Minister for Environment, Science and Technology dated March 19, 2021, was to brief the president about the work of the Committee in its fight against illegal mining and the “way forward.”
One of the big names indicted in the report is the Minister for Information who according to Mr Frimpong Boateng gathered and incited a team of journalists to attack him.
“On Saturday the 8th of February 2020. Mr. Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, the Minister for Information assembled a group of journalists from both NDC and NPP-affiliated media houses at the Forest Hotel in Dodowa to discuss a strategy to bring me Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng down. Whilst they were there a journalist from among the group called a friend of mine, also a journalist, and informed him about the plot that was being hatched. He further informed my friend to watch out for headlines in some newspapers in the days following the meeting,” he stated in the report.
“On Monday, 10′ February 2020, the INFORMER Newspaper, whose Editor was at the meeting had the Banner Headline on its front page as reproduced below: “As if that was not enough on Thursday, 13th February 2020 at the 71st Cabinet Meeting, Mr. Oppong-Nkrumah in his regular report to Cabinet talked about news that was trending in the week.
“The first thing he mentioned was Frimpong-Boateng and 500 missing excavators,” the former minister said.
As part of his report, Prof. Frimpong Boateng alleged that some members of the Committee including Kojo Oppong Nkrumah sabotaged his work.
“It must be noted that Mr. Oppong-Nkrumah, as Minister for Information, was a member of the IMCIM and he never called me to find out what I knew about ‘missing excavators’ but he found it worthwhile to magnify it in press and also present the falsehood before Cabinet for reasons best known to him and his co-conspirators. If Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah and the likes of him have presidential ambitions they should pursue it on merit and not attempt to destroy a hard working patriot, whose only ambition is work to achieve a Ghana Beyond Aid,” the report captured.
“After the 2020 general election, Oppong-Nkrumah on many occasions attributed the below expectation performance of the NPP to the Government’s management of the ‘banking crisis and the galamsey fight’. The fact is that those who did not vote for the NPP in the galamsey areas were not the miners but rather the hundreds of thousands of people living in the communities bordering the forests reserves, who were being harassed by mining companies such as Heritage Imperial,” he added.
Lord Commey, the Director of Operations at the Presidency, has vehemently refuted claims that he participated inillegal mining (galamsey).
A 37-page report authored by the former Minister for Science and Technology, Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng who was Chairman of the Inter-ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (ICIM) named Mr Commey as one of the persons at the Jubilee House who had hired Chinese nationals to engage in galamsey on his behalf.
“There are appointees in the Jubilee House that are doing or supporting illegal mining or interfering with the fight against the menace. Examples are Lord Commey, Charles Nii Teiko, and Frank Asiedu Bekoe (Protozoa).”
But in a response, Mr Commey said he had “never engaged in or supported illegal mining as contained in the said report.
“There is no point prior, during and after the appointment of the said Minister have I called, text or even assigned anyone to seek favour in respect of engaging in illegal mining to warrant his unsubstantiated allegations against me.
He dared the former Minister to provide evidence to back his allegations.
Below is the full statement
RE: REPORT ON THE WORK OF THE IMCIM SO FAR AND THE WAY FORWARD
My attention has been drawn to a 37-page report purported to have been written by the former Minister for Science and Technology, Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng who was Chairman of the Inter-ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (ICIM).
The report said to have been submitted to the Chief of Staff (CoS) cites me as an example of persons supporting or engaging in illegal mining.
“There are appointees in theJubilee House that are doing or supporting illegal mining or interfering with the fight against the menace. Examples are Lord Commey, Charles Nii Teiko, and Frank Asiedu Bekoe (Protozoa),”
For purposes of setting the records straight, I wish to state without shred of doubt that I have never engaged in or supported illegal mining as contained in the said report.
There is no point prior, during and after the appointment of the said Minister have I called, text or even assigned anyone to seek favour in respect of engaging in illegal mining to warrant his unsubstantiated allegations against me.
I therefore challenge him to prove beyond reasonable doubts claims I was either promoting or engaging in illegal mining or I would use available legal means to protect my hardwon reputation.
Until proven otherwise, I would urge all to treat the claims of Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng with the contempt they deserve.
God Bless our homeland Ghana
Lord Commey Director of Operations at the Presidency
Former Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has disclosed that some astute Members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) including a former Deputy Minister and MP for the Wassa East constituency, are into illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.
He said these persons are mostly financiers of the party as well as financiers of independent candidates.
In a latest report released by the former Minister who was then Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, he noted that “it is well known in the small scale mining circles that NDC members and sympathisers were well established in small scale mining, especially in the Western Region.”
“They acquired several concessions in mineral-rich areas during the long periods of NDC reign. They had the money and other resources to not only sponsor NDC candidates but also support independent candidates in the supposedly strongholds of the NPP. This is what happened in Evalue Dwira and Tarkwa constituencies,” he said.
He cited for instance that “in the Wassa East District, a former NDC Deputy Minister who is also MP for the Wassa East constituency [Isaac Adjei Mensah] has been actively mining in the Subri forest for years.”
“When NPP party officials complained and the army component of Operation Vanguard was withdrawn almost two years to the 2020 elections, the NDC was given an advantage in terms of access to resources from mining. This is because there are far more NDC people engaged in illegal mining than NPP members in the region,” he added.
The document dubbed “Report on the work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM)” made captivating revelations about the (gold) mining industry, especially persons involved in illegal mining and the works and gains chalked by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) during the Professor’s tenure as the chairman.
The 37-page report byformer Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng has revealed that some New Patriotic Party (NPP) officials at Jubilee House are engaged in small-scale unlawful mining (galamsey).
According to him, these individuals prevented him from addressing the issue, as well as the committee he headed.
The former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, has been challenged by the Director of Operations at the Presidency, Lord Commey, to give proof of his involvement in an unlawful small-scale mining practice (galamsey).
According to Lord Commey, the allegation made by Prof. Frimpong Boateng that he (Commey) is involved in illegal small-scale mining should be ignored by Ghanaians.
In a statement copied to GhanaWeb, the director of operations at the presidency said that he has never been involved in galamsey, and has never used his position to protect someone in the menace.
“For purposes of setting the records straight, I wish to state without shred of doubt that I have never engaged in or supported illegal mining as contained in the said report. There is no point prior, during and after the appointment of the said Minister have I called, text or even assigned anyone to seek favour in respect of engaging in illegal mining to warrant his unsubstantiated allegations against me.
“I therefore challenge him to prove beyond reasonable doubts claims that I was either promoting or engaging in illegal mining or I would use available legal means to protect my hard-won reputation.
“Until proven otherwise, I would urge all to treat the claims of Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng with the contempt they deserve,” parts of the statement read.
Background
A former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, Prof Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, named members of parliament and top government officials who are allegedly involved in illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) in Ghana.
Portions of a report on illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) in Ghana by Prof Frimpong Boateng, indicated that these MPs and government officials were either directly involved in galamsey or were using their power to protect relatives who were involved in the menace.
The 36-page report, which Prof Frimpong addressed to the Chief of Staff and the Ghana Police Service, according to myjoyonline.com, implicated the former MP for Manso Nkwanta, Joseph Albert Quarm; director of operations at the presidency, Laud Commey; executive assistant and head of social media at the presidency, Charles Nii Teiko; and Frank Asiedu Bekoe, director of political affairs at the Office of the Chief of Staff.
“He (the former NPP MP) used his position as a member of the Minerals Commission to acquire several dozens of large-scale concessions in his district, ostensibly for community mining purposes. He ended up selling these concessions to private individuals, including party members for GH¢2000 per concession.
“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.
“There are appointees in the Jubilee House that are doing or supporting illegal mining or interfering with the fight against the menace. Examples are Laud Commey, Charles Nii Teiko, and Frank Asiedu Bekoe (Protozoa),” parts of the report read.
The report also indicated that members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) had also acquired several mining concessions, especially in the Western Region.
“In the Wassa East District, a former NDC Deputy Minister who is also MP for the Wassa East constituency has been actively mining in the Subri forest for years,” the report also stated.
Former Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof Frimpong Boateng, has disclosed that former Forestry Commission boss, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, popularly known as Sir John was involved in galamsey.
According to the Professor, the late Sir John had a Chinese gang operating on his behalf.
Blowing the cover of ‘bigwigs’ who were involved in galamsey during his tenure as Minister, Prof Frimpong-Boateng who doubled as the chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), said Sir John “gave forestry entry permits to mining companies, both large and small scale, including those of foreign nationals for prospecting activities at a time when the President had put a ban on that activity.”
He said this could be a reason why the Forestry Commission never migrated onto the GalamStop Platform.
“Through Charles Owusu, the Director of Operations at the Forestry Commission, Sir John had Chinese gangs doing mining on his behalf,” he added.
Prof Frimpong-Boateng further disclosed that Mr. Kwadwo Owusu Afrivie (aka Sir John) was actively giving out timber concessions, even in forest reserves for logging.”
“The issue about rose wood exploitation is something that is beyond the scope of this report. I remember that at a meeting in the conference room of the President, I told the President in the presence of Sir John that the greatest danger to the forests of Ghana was Sir John,” he added.
The document dubbed “Report on the work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM)” made captivating revelations about the (gold) mining industry, especially persons involved in illegal mining and the works and gains chalked by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) during the Professor’s tenure as the chairman.
A 37-page report byformer Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng has revealed that some New Patriotic Party (NPP) officials at Jubilee House are engaged in small-scale unlawful mining (galamsey).
According to him, these individuals prevented him from addressing the issue, as well as the committee he headed.
One of the NPP big wigs Joseph Albert Quarm, mentioned in the IMCIM ‘galamsey’ report, has has denied the assertions made in the report that he obtained extensive mining concessions and sold them to private parties.
The said report titled: “Report on the IMCIM and the way forward”, is reported to have been authored in 2021 by former Minister for Environment and Science, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng and presented to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo through the Chief of Staff.
Reacting to the report on Citi FM’s eyewitness news and monitored by the medi, the former member of parliament for Manso Nkwanta, stated that the content of the report implicating him are false.
“…Totally lies, in the first place, do I own a concession? let alone twelve or twenty-four or multiples of concessions, I do not own a concession, he said.
“Secondly, once I don’t have a concession, how can I sell a concession to someone indeed, he who alleges must prove,” he insisted.
According to Joseph Quarms, the former minister must come out publicly to accept ownership of the report and to provide the evidence that proves same.
“To me, once he has not accepted on your station that the report is from him, I can’t say much but if indeed he has accepted that the report is from his outfit, the for a mining concession, you must have documents covering it, bearing my name Joseph Albert Quarm,” he further stated.
He also dared Prof Frimpong-Boateng to produce documents that bear his name as claimed by the report.
“I will rather advise that your station should request from him to produce all the documents bearing my name for mining purposes,” he challenged.
What the report said about Quarm’s involvement:
It is on records that the activities of some senior members of the NPP accounted for the anger at the community level.
Hon. Joseph Albert Quarm, the former MP for Manso Nkwanta exemplifies such individuals. This member of Parliament for the Manso Nkwanta Constituency in the Ashanti Region and at the same time member of the board of the Minerals Commission.
He used his position as a member of the Minerals Commission to acquire several dozens of large-scale concessions in his district, ostensibly for community mining purposes. He ended up selling these concessions to private individuals, including party member for two thousand Cedis per concession.
This infuriated the party in the constituency so during the 2020 primaries to select a candidate the electorate voted against Hon, Quarm, the sitting MP, who was more resourced that the other candidate.
Although there were allegations that he “camped” delegations and attempted to bribe them, he lost to a lesser-known individual who did not have any financial muscle.
The search for the next Chief Justice (CJ) to replace Chief Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah is becoming topsy-turvy as an emerging report suggests Akufo-Addo’s former legal partner, Justice Yonny Kulendi, could be the next CJ instead of Justice Gertrude Torkornoo.
Earlier this week, graphic.com.gh reported that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has reportedly pencilled in Supreme Court Judge Justice Gertrude Torkornoo as the next Chief Justice of Ghana.
However, a newspaper report by the New Crusading Guide on April 21, 2023, hinted otherwise.
The paper headlined, ‘Search for CJ: Justice Kulendi is the Next Chief Justice…Akufo Addo swerved Gertrude Torkornoo’, is suggesting that the president could go in for his former workmate to be the new CJ of the Supreme Court.
Biography:
Emmanuel Yonny Kulendi is a Ghanaian judge who hails from Issa, a village in the Upper West Region of Ghana. In the formative years of his life, young Kulendi spent almost two years in the Wa prisons on remand, and this incident made him resolve all the more to be a lawyer.
He entered the University of Ghana, where he was awarded his Bachelor of laws degree in 1992. He continued at the Ghana School of Law and became a barrister-at-law in 1994.
He holds a master of arts degree in International Security and Civil-Military Relations from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, United States.
Kulendi had his national service at the Legal Aid Board of Accra. After his service, he joined the Akufo-Addo, Prempeh, and Co. Chambers, where he underwent pupillage.
He later founded his own law firm, Kulendi @ Law, where he worked as the firm’s managing partner until his appointment to the bench.
As a lawyer, his areas of expertise included; Investments, Securities, Commercial Law, Criminal Law, and Litigation.
On 17 March 2020 the president, Nana Akufo-Addo informed the Speaker of Parliament, Mike Oquaye that consultations had been completed for the nomination of Kulendi and three other persons to be made justices of the Supreme Court of Ghana.
Kulendi was vetted together with Justice Joy Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu on Tuesday 12 May 2020. Following his vetting by parliament, Kulendi was approved by parliament on Wednesday 20 May 2020, and sworn into office on Tuesday 26 May 2020.
Kulendi became the first Ghanaian from the Upper West Region to be appointed to serve on Ghana’s highest court of jurisdiction. His appointment also now makes him a part of a small group of persons who were called to the Supreme Court bench directly from the bar.
In his report on illegal mining, formerenvironmentminister Prof. Frimpong Boateng expressed his horror at what he claimed to have learned through a phone call from attorney Gabby Otchere Darko, who allegedly instructed him to permit a mining business to operate in the Krobo and Apaprama Forest Reserve.
According to the report, which was allegedly written by the former minister, he was horrified because the lawyer who was closer to the president and should have supported his fight against Galamsey was the one fronting for the company to engage in illegality.
Prof. Boateng, in the said report, revealed that the lawyer had called claiming to be the legal representative for Donald Entsuah and his friend Simon Ayman, a Candian national, whose company C&J Aleska had reportedly caused havoc to theDiaso Forest Reserve.
The portion of the report read: ”The major pronouncement made by the President, when he took office in January 2017 that touched the hearts and rekindled the enthusiasm of many Ghanaians, including me, was about his preparedness to put his presidency on the line to fight the menace of illegal mining.
I took this statement literally and seriously and I was determined to do everything I could to protect the environment and biodiversity.
I was expecting people such as Mr. Gabby Asare Otchere Darko, Captain Kodah and others like them, who knew the President better and certainly had his interest and success at heart, to support the fight against illegal mining. I was thus horrified to receive a telephone call from Mr. Otchere Darko telling me he was the legal advisor to Mr. Donald Entsuah and his Imperial Heritage Mining Company and that the company should be allowed to work in the Kobro and Apaprama Forest Reserves.
It was this same Donald Entsuah and his friend Simon Ayman, a Canadian national, whose company C&J Aleska caused havoc in the Diaso forest. These two gentlemen were close allies of the Mahamas and soldiers from the Ghana Army gave them protection. Captain Mahama died in the course of his duty protecting Donald Entsuah’s interests.
The IMCIM was able to dislodge E&J Aleska from Diaso. Shortly thereafter Donald Entsuah established Imperial Heritage Mining Company and was given a prospecting licence to work in the Kobro and Apaprama forests in Amansie Central. Here again, he managed to get military protection contrary to all directives from government. Worse still, an important NPP member also provided legal advice.”
It added ”Going forward, if there will ever be such an undertaking, I expect the President’s pronouncement and wishes to be respected and supported, especially by those close to him.
For four years there were directives from the President and his Cabinet that were designed to help fight illegal mining. These directives were to be respected and carried out by Ministries and some agencies.”
According to Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng’s final report majority of the ministers appointed to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) abandoned the committee.
The only ministers who remained a part of the Committee, according to Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng’s report, were the Ministers of Sanitation and Local Government and Rural Development.
The Committee was set in March, 2017 by President Akufo-Addo in the fight against illegal small-scale mining.
Among the ministries which formed the Committee are Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), Lands and Natural Resources (MLNR), Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), Chieftaincy & Religious Affairs, Regional Re-Organisation and Development, Monitoring and Evaluation, Water and Sanitation, Interior, Defense and Information.
Among the tasks of the Committee was to sanitise and regularise small-scale mining activities in the various mining districts to ensure that miners work within legal framework.
But the Committee was dissolved shortly after the 2020 elections.
Committee Chairman Prof Frimpong-Boateng, who was Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, accused some elements at the Jubilee House of hampering the efforts of the inter-ministerial committee.
In his report, sighted by 3news.com, the respected heart surgeon listed abandonment of members as the first challenge his committee faced.
“Apart from the Ministers for Sanitation and Local Government and Rural Development, all the others abandoned the Committee,” he stated in the report, said to have been submitted on March 19, 2021.
“To make matters worse, the Chairman was personally attacked, vilified and framed for things he had not done.
“Such assaults came from many people, including some of the ministers who effectively left the committee.”
He cited Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, and then Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Mafo, as among ministers who deliberately worked against the committee.
Immediate-past Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof Kwabena Frimpong Boateng has mentioned some top government officials involved in the illegal mining, popularly known as ‘galamsey’.
According to the renowned Cardiologist who was a minister President Akufo-Addo during his first term, the rot goes as high as the government seat, Jubilee House.
This was revealed in a 36-page report purportedly written by Prof. Boateng 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.
“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.
The Senior Advisor to the President, Yaw Osafo Maafo, has been cited in some passages of a supposedly comprehensive report on illicit small-scale mining (galamsey) in Ghana by the former Minister for Environment, Science, and Technology, Prof. Frimpong Boateng.
Page 26 of the said report, which has been sighted by GhanaWeb, indicated that Yaw Osafo Maafo, who was the senior minister in 2019, vowed to protect Ekow Ewusi, a former first vice-chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who was implicated in the ‘missing 500 galamsey excavators’ scandal and was arrested by the police.
The report indicated that Osafo Maafo sent for copies of the police statements and evidence Prof Frimpong had on the case and vowed to protect Ekow Ewusi.
The former science and technology minister also wrote in the report that Osafo Maafo said he (Frimpong Boateng) was a bad person and encouraged people to fight him.
“In the course of the investigations (into the missing excavators), Mr. Mantey (a journalist) confessed that he was contracted by Mr John Ofori-Anis, then national security coordinator for the Central Region and Mr. Ekow Ewusi to use his bank account at the National Investment Bank for what effectively was money laundering.
“Effectively, the proceeds from the excavator sales were lodged in Seth Mantey’s bank account. The moneys lodged were later cashed and given to Mr. John Ofori Atta, who in turn gave some of the money to Ekow Ewusi,” parts of the report read.
“The Senior Minister sent someone to me for a copy of Seth Mantey’s statement as well as a copy of the bank transactions as recorded in Mantey’s bank statement… After going through the documents, the senior minister is reported to have remarked that Ekow Ewusi is his boy … he encouraged his friends to organise themselves, gang up and fight Frimpong Boateng,” it added.
The report indicated that Prof Frimpong told Akufo-Addo about what had transpired but the president, after promising to handle the situation, has not done anything about it till date.
It appears that President Akufo-Addo has suffered a direct hit from the activities of illegal miners in the country.
A report that has surfaced on online platform suggests that the president’s residence at Kyebi has been affected by illegal mining also known as “galamsey”.
The report, said to be authored by former Minister of Environment and Technology, Prof. Frimpong Boateng, at the end of his tenure as leader of the government’s galamsey taskforce indicated that the president’s garden is beyond recognition.
The issue about galamsey having affected the president’s Kyebi residence was contained on page 29, where the dismissed minister stated:
“The impunity in the Eastern Region is exemplified by near unbelievable activity in Kyebi.
“I had a telephone call from Mr. Eric Antwi of the Office of the President and he narrated that the youth organizer of the NPP in Kyebi was excavating for gold in a field close to the house of H.E. the President of the Republic. When we checked it was true.
“Indeed part of the garden of the President had been affected. Apparently, the President did not know about this.”
According to him, “We quickly dispatched a bulldozer and an excavator to the area to reclaim the land and vegetate it.”
“I need not say that nothing happened to the local youth organizer who caused the damage,” he added.
Fresh details regarding how galamsey kingpin Aisha Huang entered the country has emerged.
According to the Criminal High Court in Accra presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo that, Aisha Huang, re-entered into Ghana through the Aflao Port after she was repatriated in 2018.
The notorious Chinese galamsey queen according to investigators said she came back to the country because she missed her husband, whose name was given as Prince Amoah.
“When we asked her why she came into Ghana, she stated that she had missed her husband, whose name she gave as one Prince Amoah, and that she had come to visit him,” the 10th Prosecution Witness told the court.
Aisha Huang is facing four charges namely; undertaking a mining operation without a licence, facilitating the participation of persons engaged in a mining operation, illegal employment of foreign nationals, and entering Ghana while prohibited from re-entering.
She has pleaded not guilty and has since been remanded into prisons custody while the trial is ongoing.
In court on Monday, April 17, 2023, an Inspector of the Ghana Police Service, currently seconded to the Ministry of National Security as a Detective, Simon Nyaho, explained to the court how Aisha Huang re-entered the country upon his team’s investigation.
He told the court that on September 6, 2022, his team was tasked to investigate the circumstances under which the accused person re-entered the country and the activities she was engaged in since her re-entry.
“We secured a court order to enable us conduct a further search of the residence of the accused person,” Detective Nyaho told the court as he read his witness statement to the court.
He added that at Aisha Huang’s residence “we found 19 bottles of substances which was later confirmed by the Ghana Standards Authority to be mercury, 200 pieces of AA cartridges and a warehouse containing toiletries, groceries, excavator parts and other Chinese consumables.
“We also took custody of two metal safes earlier retrieved from the residence of the accused person by Officers of the Defence Intelligence.
“I together with my team interrogated the accused person and she stated that she re-entered Ghana through the Aflao Port,” Detective Nyaho told the court.
Detective Nyaho who is the 10th Prosecution Witness in the ongoing trial said “When we asked her why she came into Ghana, she stated that she had missed her husband, whose name she gave as one Prince Amoah, and that she had come to visit him.”
The Witness told the court that after interrogation “we took a statement on caution from the accused person dated 28th September 2022, and with the permission of the court I wish to tender it in evidence.”
He said the two passport were handed over to the Ghana Immigration Service.
Further Investigations
Detective Nyaho said he knew the accused person En Huang also known as Ruixia Huang after she was handed over to his office on September 2, 2022 for further investigation, by the Ghana Immigration Service who had earlier on caused her arrest.
According to him, she was handed over together with the following items; yellow fever vaccination card, COVID 19 vaccination card, Non-Citizen Ghana card application form with its payment receipts, and two passports from the Peoples Republic of China.
“One of the passports had the name En Huang with passport number G39575625,” and “The date of birth on the passport is 7th July 1986, issued in Ningxia, China on 14th January 2010 and it was to expire on 13th January 2020.
“The place of birth indicated in the passport is Nei Mongol. It has a picture of the accused person,” the Witness told the court.
He said “The second passport had the name Ruixia Huang with number EE9994609,” and “The date of birth on the passport is 7th November 1975, issued in Fujian, China on 14th January 2019 and is to expire on 13th January 2029.
“The place of birth indicated in this passport is Fujian. This passport also has a picture of the accused person,” Detective Nyaho noted.
Evidence
The witness while being led by Mercy Arthur, a Principal State Attorney, identified certain documents retrieved during investigations and same were admitted into evidence.
The documents tendered in evidence are a Yellow fever vaccination card bearing the name Huang Ruxia and a non-Citizen Ghana identity card bearing the name En Huang.
A covid 19 vaccination card bearing the name Huang Ruxia and an Application form for a non-citizen identity card also bearing the name En Huang
Aside from that, Aisha Huang’s three separate ailment receipts bearing the name – Huang En and investigation cautioned statement of the accused person.
EIB Network’s Legal Affairs Correspondent, Murtala Inusah, reports that the mouth of the witness was sealed by counsel for Aisha Huang, led by Lawyer Miracle Attachey.
An eyewitness has given a detailed account of how three suspected armed robbers were murdered.
The incident that led to the death of a small-scale miner and the subsequent burning of three armed robbers at Moseaso in the Wassa Amenffi West Municipality keeps community folks thinking.
The incident happened on Sunday morning April 16, 2023 where the three-armed robbers gunned down a worker of a small-scale mining company in the area during an operation at a galamsey site.
Community folks heard of the gunshot, went to the scene and realized a community member, Frank Arthur was gunned down.
The news of the incident quickly spread throughout the town, and the community was outraged. They mobilized and launched a manhunt for the robbers. After an intense search, they managed to apprehend three out of the four suspects.
However, instead of turning the suspects over to the authorities, the community members decided to take matters into their own hands and set the robbers ablaze.
According to an eyewitness who was part of the robbery victims, who gave his name as Tikwaa, said they were returning from site with gold “when we got to a curve, we realized they had raised a barrier on the road and two out of four who were wielding guns started shooting into our car. We were in the car but Arthur was in the bucket of the car so he sustained gunshot wounds, without our knowledge”.
“We were ordered out of the car and buried our faces on the ground. So they went in to take the black(gold) from the car. As they were about to move, they told us that one of our brothers was shot so we should take him to the hospital, so we took him into the car to the Moseaso clinic”, he added.
Speaking to Ghanaweb in an interview, the owner of the small scale mining site Mr. Richard Adjei said Francis Arthur, 51 was his senior brother and the care taker of the site adding that, “because of my tight schedules, Arthur has been taking care of the site for me ever since we started operations”.
On that fateful day, Mr. Adjei said he went to see his brother in the morning to inform him that soldiers will be coming to site so they should go to the site and bring the “black” home.
“I was in the washroom few minutes after that when I received a called that Arthur had been shot so I quickly moved my car to the clinic where they were sending him for treatment and but when I got there, I realized they were sending him to the Asankragwaa Catholic Hospital rather, so I followed up. On our way to the hospital, we met a group of soldiers who also delayed for about thirty minutes, so Frank Arthur was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital”.
According to Mr. Adjei, robbery incident has been very rampant in the Moseaso community. These robbers are a group made up of indigenes of Moseaso and Dunkwa in the Central Region. Those who have been burnt were part of six robbers who were imprisoned for three years, came back and are still in the robbery business.
He added that, “one the burnt robbers robbed somebody of his money two months ago, he was arrested by police and bailed, and is till robbing”
The Association of Small Scale Miners have accused the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of politicising the operations in the fight against illegal mining also known as ‘galamsey’.
According to the Association, mining concessions are awarded to only government cronies at the expense of others.
This follows the former president’s comments about the alleged politicization of the fight against galamsey whilst at Atiwa East and West constituency in the Eastern Region.
Speaking on Starr Midday News with Blessing Bless Frimpong, the group’s president, Michael Peprah lamented that the NPP government has embarked on targeting those who are not in their party, even though they possess the necessary qualifications and licenses to operate.
“We at the Association, we knew the mining but here is the case that it was DCEs who were appointing people to be trained, they train party youth organizers and known faces in the NPP. So this is a fact and you can as well cross-check.
“I have had attacks and as a matter of fact, I am even in court with the government because my machine was burnt. Meanwhile, I had all my documents and as we are speaking now we are in court just because I am a critic of the government. We have people who are working in the forest reserves with impunity and yet still Operation Vanguard, operation whatever will not go there to even stop them,” Mr. Peprah stated.
He continued: “So these are facts that our former president has spoken about. You know, we just have to be candid in this aspect. If we look into the launching of the community mining scheme, you will realize that now the community mining does not come with any license. They only launch it for people who are known faces of the party.”
The President further alleged that the bureaucracy in acquiring the license the Minister will have to know you before he signed it.
“Recently the minister met some people and said he has only signed 99 licenses for some people which we knew their party affiliations. When we speak it is not something they will want to listen to any suggestion we are bringing on board and that is the problem that has made us not able to fight this galamsey problem. Now Ghana is as well facing the consequences,” he added.
Richard Ahiagbah, the director of communications for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), has asked former president John Dramani Mahama to name the party’s individuals he alleges are involved in galamsey.
Mr. Ahiagbah said the former president must be patriotic enough and help the police bring such persons to book.
Mr. Ahiagbah made the call on the back of a claim by former president Mahama that government has deliberately been harassing NDC supporters who engage in galamsey but allowing NPP fanatics to engage in the practice with impunity.
In an interview on Eyewitness News on Citi FM, Mr. Ahiagbah refuted the accusations and said the Akufo-Addo government has made strides in its fight against galamsey and admonished the former president to volunteer information leading to the prosecution of such people.
“When the president took control of the fight against galamsey, he engaged everyone because it is an open fight he was leading and there was no secret about it and I call others to come on board and disregard the comments of the former president”.
“If the former president knows anyone engaging in galamsey, he should tell us because all of us are united in the fight against galamsey. But we want to know the NDC supporters he said are engaged in galamsey, so they can be prosecuted for endangering our future.”
“We must be interested in what the former president was saying because it is revealing that there are NDC people who are doing galamsey, and he knows them and encourages them to keep doing it, but they are now disappointed because the fight against galamsey is successful,” Mr. Ahiagbah further stressed.
Mr. Ahiagbah further indicated that the government’s fight against galamsey has been relatively successful and appealed for a collective effort and collaboration of the public to keep it going.
“The Lands Minister is busy reclaiming galamsey lands and the fight against galamsey is ongoing, and we all have to make efforts to help make the fight a success.”
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), George Akuffo Dampare has been asked to resign for to ensure that galamsey is
Former Presidential staffer and political commentator Mr. P.V Jantuah Dadson is calling for the resignation of the Inspector General of the Police (IGP) Dr. George Akuffo Dampare for failing in the fight against illegal mining otherwise known as galamsey.
According to him, the Ghana Police Service is part of the government’s organization in the fight against galamsey after its officers were sent to various parts of the country to end the menace.
“On the issue of the galamsey fight, don’t you think it would be good for the IGP if he resigns from office?” Mr. PV Jantuah asked.
Mr. PV Jantuah’s calls were in reaction to a viral video that saw an officer begging a civilian for his life in a galamsey community.
The Ghana Police Service in a statement revealed they arrested four members of the gang they accused of attacking the police but the suspects also claimed the uniformed officers were extorting money from galamsey sites in Axim, a community in the Western Region.
The police also claimed the men seen in the video were robbers.
However, the leader of the gang, Kwame Asare Ato who escaped the police arrest has denied the allegation saying they are not robbers as claimed by the state security.
He also revealed that his gang worked in the area with the District Police Command in extorting money from miners and went further to reveal that, the gun he used in his operation was given to him by the police CID in the district.
Meanwhile, Mr PV Jatuah Dadson insisted that the District Police Commander of Axim should be sanctioned.
“Where did the incident happen, Axim; the IGP together with the District Police Commander should have gone home by now. The two police officers sighted in the video should have also appeared in court by now,” he said.
Mr PV Jantuah also wondered how Kwame Asare Ato the gang leader was able to seize guns and other items from the police.
He noted that the police could not do anything to save themselves from being humiliated because of the intentions they had and the fact that they have already been compromised.
Activist and politician, Kwame Asare Obeng alias A Plus has disclosed that he has an affiliation with wanted Galamsey lord, Kwame Ani.
He said he has asked galamsey fugitive, Kwame Ato Ani Asare to hand himself over to the police.
According to A Plus who described Ani as his “small boy,” he has entreated him to report himself to the police for investigations to continue into the claims made against him by the police.
“Kwame is my small boy. I posted the video. I have been in contact with Kwame Ani from the beginning of the issue and I posted the video because I wanted everyone to see the video.
“We assessed everything and came to the conclusion that if we don’t share the video, it will become the everyday issue where a person is labelled an armed robber, shot and killed by the police with no questions asked. So we wanted to make it a national issue.
“I spoke to Kwame and I asked him to hand himself over to the police. I told him I will come to Axim myself and pick him and hand over to the police,” he said.
While condemning the actions of Ani, A Plus stated that the police are equally to blame for creating a criminal out of him as a result of Ani’s work with the police as an informant.
“Kwame is a stubborn boy… but his stubbornness as a result of him being empowered by the police. When we talk about the police nobody should defend them. Only a few people in the police are good people, the majority of them are bad nuts. Just two years ago, a police officer involved in an accident was found to be transporting a stash of weed. It was in this same country that a police killed his colleague on bank escort duty because they wanted to steal the money..,” he stated.
Kwame Ato Asare Ani is the name currently dominating the media space in Ghana following events around a viral video in which he and a group of men were captured in a heated confrontation with some police officers.
The police have since labeled him as the leader of a criminal group and has put him on a wanted list even though Ani, speaking to some media houses from a hideout has denied the allegation.
A viral video showed a gang of men confronting a group of police officers for purportedly seeking to arrest their leader.
Identified in a statement later released by the police as Kwame Ani Asare, the gang leader accused the police officers of seeking to arrest him after paying them a bribe.
Amidst threats, one of the officers is seen in the video going on his knees to plead with the gang leader.
The Ghana Police Service said it received a report on March 28, 2023, that a group of officers from the Axim Police Command had been attacked by the gang in question.
The police stated that it conducted an operation which has led to the arrest of four members of the gang.
However speaking to some media houses from a hideout, the gang leader said he was no robber but an informant who has been collecting money from small scale miners and delivering to the police.
According to him, the attempt by the police to arrest him is on the back of his refusal to hand over some GH ₵100,000.00 he had collected from a galamsey site to the police.
He noted that the refusal to hand over the money is a result of the police cheating him out in various previous deals, the arrest of four members of the gang while the leader, Kwame Ani remains at large and on their wanted list.
