The Senior Advisor to the President, Yaw Osafo Maafo, has been cited in some passages of a supposedly comprehensive report on illicit small-scale mining (galamsey) in Ghana by the former Minister for Environment, Science, and Technology, Prof. Frimpong Boateng.
Page 26 of the said report, which has been sighted by GhanaWeb, indicated that Yaw Osafo Maafo, who was the senior minister in 2019, vowed to protect Ekow Ewusi, a former first vice-chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who was implicated in the ‘missing 500 galamsey excavators’ scandal and was arrested by the police.
The report indicated that Osafo Maafo sent for copies of the police statements and evidence Prof Frimpong had on the case and vowed to protect Ekow Ewusi.
The former science and technology minister also wrote in the report that Osafo Maafo said he (Frimpong Boateng) was a bad person and encouraged people to fight him.
“In the course of the investigations (into the missing excavators), Mr. Mantey (a journalist) confessed that he was contracted by Mr John Ofori-Anis, then national security coordinator for the Central Region and Mr. Ekow Ewusi to use his bank account at the National Investment Bank for what effectively was money laundering.
“Effectively, the proceeds from the excavator sales were lodged in Seth Mantey’s bank account. The moneys lodged were later cashed and given to Mr. John Ofori Atta, who in turn gave some of the money to Ekow Ewusi,” parts of the report read.
“The Senior Minister sent someone to me for a copy of Seth Mantey’s statement as well as a copy of the bank transactions as recorded in Mantey’s bank statement… After going through the documents, the senior minister is reported to have remarked that Ekow Ewusi is his boy … he encouraged his friends to organise themselves, gang up and fight Frimpong Boateng,” it added.
The report indicated that Prof Frimpong told Akufo-Addo about what had transpired but the president, after promising to handle the situation, has not done anything about it till date.