Deputy Attorney General, Alfred Tuah-Yeboah, has asked former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng to present evidence to back claims in his illegal mining report.
Professor Frimpong-Boateng, in his galamsey report, accused some bigwigs of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) engaging in galamsey.
The Attorney General, in an advice dated September 12, 2023, to the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service (CID), said the former chairman failed to provide the necessary evidence to back his report for the prosecution of persons indicted.
In a response to the Attorney General, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng in a statement, pointed out that the destruction of the water bodies by alleged criminals will be evident in the future.
The Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, in response, however, indicated that the author failed to provide evidence to warrant prosecution.
In support, Mr. Tuah-Yeboah, in an interview with Citi News said the office is open to receiving the necessary evidence.
“Advice has been offered, an opinion has been offered. Anyone who thinks that he has evidence that will also support us to review our opinion, why not? But we will not in any way take a matter to court, where we will be seriously bruised and embarrassed. As prosecutors, you go to court with hard evidence, not with speculations.”
“So you can say Mr. A has stolen. That is the allegation. What has he stolen? Then you come with evidence. Mr. A is engaged in galamsey. That is the allegation. What is the evidence? It’s possible that you may go to a forest and realise that people have engaged in illegal mining, but you may mention my name as the one who did it; that is not enough. You should be able to get evidence to show that yes I was there and I was the one who engaged people to do that. We do this work based on evidence, not on conjectures,” he explained.
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