A former Secretary to the Inter ministerial Committee on illegal Mining (IMCIM), Charles Onuawonto Bissue, has questioned Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng’s decision not to add his name to the list of unlawful miners in the country.
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng provided names of government officials and New Patriotic Party (NPP) members at the Jubilee House who are actively engaged in unlawful small-scale mining, also known as “galamsey” in the local dialect.
According to a signed 37-page report addressed to the President, the Chief of Staff and the police, some NPP power brokers hired Chinese nationals to participate in galamsey on their behalf.
“Throughout our struggle with illegalities in the small-scale mining sector, what baffled me was the total disregard of the President’s commitment to protect 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,” portions of the report read.
In the paper, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng also mentioned cases in which top NPP officials represented individuals accused of participating in galamsey and harming the environment and water bodies as their lawyers and legal advisors.
However, when Mr. Charles Bissue appeared on Adom TV’s Badwam show to add his voice to the discussion on the report, he asked why Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, who acted as the IMCIM head, did not include his own name on the list of Ghanaians involved in illicit mining.
According to the former presidential staffer, Prof. Frimpong- Boateng is “not clean” when it comes to the country’s problems with illegal mining.
He made the allegations as the host Akwasi Nsiah bantered him on the topic.