A ranking member of the Mines and Energy committee, John Jinapor, has expressed his surprise about officials at the Presidency named in the report by Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng for their alleged involvement in illegal mining.
To him, the serious accusations coming from the former Environment Minister should not be overlooked.
“I’m not surprised that we’re getting confirmation from Prof. Frimpong-Boateng that top party officials are involved in galamsey. Indeed what surprises me is the fact that people within the Presidency and we’re not talking about ordinary people, top and influential people within the Presidency have been accused of being involved in this illicit illegal mining activity.
“And this accusation is coming from no less a person than a Cabinet minister who was the chair of the Inter-Ministerial committee that was fighting this menace. And so it is not a small issue that we will brush under the carpet. This matter must be investigated thoroughly,” he said on Accra-based TV3.
Mr Jinapor charged parliament to utilize its power fully to ensure that thorough investigations are carried out and that defaulters get punished.
He suggested that a bi-partisan committee be set to probe into the issue and provide recommendations.
“Parliament must exert its authority and get deep into this matter because as far as I’m concerned, the President cannot be trusted.
“I’ve spoken to the Minority Leader and I think that we can have a bipartisan committee to get into this whole issue about illegal mining. Look at how much we’ve spent fighting this menace. What have we achieved? Where are we? So that we can make recommendations.”
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Former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof. Frimpong- Boateng, has submitted some names of top government officials who frustrated his effort to fight the illegal mining canker, popularly known as ‘galamsey’.
The renowned professor, who served under President Nana Akufo-Addo during his first term, alleged that the rot goes as high as the seat of government, 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.
Following the revelation, there were calls from a cross-section of Ghanaians for state security agencies to look into it due to which the President asked the Ghana Police Service to probe the matter.