Prof Frimpong Boateng exposes top government officials engaged in galamsey

Former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof Frimpong Boateng has allegedly named some top government officials who are engaged in illegal mining popularly known as galamsey.

According to a JoyNews report, the former appointee of President Akufo-Addo has produced a 36-page document detailing everything that inspired the fight against illegal mining in the country since 2017. The minister allegedly named some officials close to the seat of government who are either neck-deep in the act or frustrated in the fight against it because of their interests.

“Throughout our struggle with illegalities in the small-scale mining sector, what baffled me was the total disregard of the President’s commitment to protecting the environment,” Myjoyonline quoted from the document.

Aside from the disregard for the President’s commitment against the canker, the former minister said party officials from local to the national level are all involved. He said most of them are using Chinese to commit the act.

“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,” Prof Frimpong Boateng revealed. 

According to the renowned medical doctor, there are party people who genuinely are doing legit business with concession. Such people, he said obey the laws governing the sector and engage in sustainable mining. But the illegal party people are there in large numbers as well.

“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,” he revealed in the document.

Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo recently instructed that the claims of the former minister that persons at the Jubilee House are into illegal mining be investigated. The police announced they had commenced an investigation into the issue though the former minister denied receiving notice of the investigation.