The Member of Parliament for Builsa South, Dr. Clement Apaak has described a suspicious President Akufo-Addo’s directive for the CID to probe allegations by former Minister for Environment, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s of Jubilee House involvement in galamsey activities. Mr. Frimpong-Boateng, speaking on GTV has alleged that persons in the government, at the seat of government Jubilee House and members of the governing party are involved in galamsey activities. Following the revelation by the former Minister for Environment a section of Ghanaians have called for an investigation into the allegations. On the back of the calls from citizens the President wants the allegation investigated. The Daily Graphic newspaper reports that the special investigation unit of the Criminal Investigation Department is in charge of the probe. Commenting on the President’s directive, the Builsa South lawmaker says he wishes that either the Office of Special Prosecutor (OSP) or the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) investigate the allegation. “I wish OSP or CHRAJ would rather investigate these allegations. Could the directive to the CID to investigate these allegations be a plot to clear, time will tell!,” Mr. Apaak stated in a tweet on Monday March 20, 2023. He continued: “The record of the CID under New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Nana Akufo-Addo’s legendary tendency to clear his appointees of wrongdoing, make his order to the police to probe Prof Boateng’s allegations suspicious.” However, the special unit of the CID has also written to the former Minister to assist in the investigation.
Jubilee House den of galamsey
Former Minister for Science of Environment, Science and Technology, Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng last week revealed that, he is of the strong conviction that his exit from the Ministry was a grand scheme orchestrated by the government and his party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP). According to him, the allegations against him of some missing 500 excavators seized from persons engaged in illegal mining activities popularly called galamsey in 2020 were fabricated by some members in government to just tarnsh his reputation for him to be kicked out of office. He pointed out that there were some people in government that wanted him removed from office because of his stance on illegal mining activities in the country. Prof. Frimpong Boateng explained that the actions of military personnel deployed to deal with illegal miners triggered the entire falsehood about him being responsible for the missing excavators at the time because the military were on top of their job and affecting people associated with illegal mining.
Prof Kwabena Frimpong Boateng
“The true story is that at the start of Operation Vanguard, the soldiers were supposed to arrest the excavators, but they will go into the forest and removed the control boards of the excavators and come back to report but when they went away, the owners will come with different control boards and move the excavators away. “So the soldiers reported that they had immobilized over 700 excavators and so we appointed someone to go round and check but when we went round, we found only about 150 to 200 excavators, the rest had been moved away.” He further stressed that “there was an orchestration within the party and the government to get me out and when I left galamsey activities increased. Now things are coming up, and we know those behind it and party people who are there including government and Jubilee House who are doing galamsey and so on and even now,” he said when speaking in an interview on Ghana Television (GTV). The missing excavators saga sparked in 2020 when Prof. Frimpong Boateng, the then Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation revealed on Joy Fm that most of the excavators seized from illegal miners had gone missing. He therefore wrote a letter to the Police CID to investigate Horace Ekow Ewusi, then suspended First Vice Chairman of the governing NPP in the Central Region over his alleged involvement in the missing earth-moving equipment. Ekow Ewusi was contracted by the government at the time to cart excavators and other vehicles and pieces of equipment seized by the anti-illegal mining task force to designated areas for safekeeping but ended up in people’s homes.
President calls for probe
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has directed the Ghana Police Service to commence investigations into allegations made by a former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, concerning the engagement of some New Patriotic Party (NPP) bigwigs in illegal mining activities, popularly known as "galamsey". The President gave the directive last week, and Daily Graphic checks indicate that the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) has commenced investigations into the matter.
President Akufo Addo
A highly placed source in the police told the Daily Graphic that last week the CID commenced investigations into the issues raised by Prof. Frimpong-Boateng. According to the source, the police had dispatched a letter to Prof Frimpong-Boateng to assist the police in their investigations. I’ll co-operate However, when contacted yesterday, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng told the Daily Graphic that he had not received any letter from the police on the matter. Nevertheless, he said, he would co-operate fully with any investigations into the matter if he was approached