Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, former Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, has been summoned by the Ghana Police Service’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) in connection with allegations he made about the involvement of some presidential staff in illegal small-scale mining (galamsey).
According to the Daily Graphic, the invitation comes after President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo ordered the police to probe the allegations.
The report indicated that the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) is in charge of the probe.
Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, in an interview on GBC which GhanaWeb monitored, averred that government officials were behind the operations of illegal miners (galamseyers) in the country.
According to the renowned surgeon, these officials buy the excavators and other equipment for these illegal miners and pump huge sums of money into the project to keep them in business.
Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng’s comment comes on the heels of allegations in 2020 that some 500 seized excavators from illegal miners were missing.
He described the news as false and an attempt by some persons in government to sack him as the Environment Minister at the time.
“Let me tell you that I did not take one excavator for anything, they know the truth. Now things are coming up; we know those who are behind it and the party people who are there; people in government, including Jubilee House, who are doing galamsey and so on, even now,” he said.
“There was an orchestrated scheme, even within the party and government, to get me out. Why is it that when I left now everyone is in the forest?” he added.