Former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has been challenged to back with evidence his claims that over 500 excavators seized from illegal miners had gone missing.
Former Secretary to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, Charles Bissue, said the former Minister owes it a duty of care to the state to back his “reckless comment” with some evidence.
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, who was also Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, shocked many when he claimed over 500 excavators had disappeared.
This brought embarrassment to the Akufo-Addo government which had sworn to win the war against illegal mining known in local parlance as ‘galamsey’.
Though the police arrested six persons in connection with the disappearance including then Central Regional Vice Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Ekow Ewusi, the issue died a natural death.
This development, according to Mr Bissue, has given their political opponents arsenals to bring the name of President Akufo-Addo into disrepute.
Speaking on Adom FM’s morning show, Dwaso Nsem programme Monday, the livid NPP man stated unequivocally that, no excavator went missing during their tenure.
He could not fathom why Prof. Frimpong-Boateng has kept a long silence when he knows the claim is just a figment of his imagination.
Mr Bissue said “if he (Prof. Frimpong-Boateng) has got nothing to hide, he should come out and explain to Ghanaians the motive for his comment and put this matter to rest.”