Commissioner of CHRAJ, Joseph Whittal, has disclosed that former Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, had intentions of going into mining.
Speaking in an interview, he explained that the Professor had genuine (legal) concessions for the extraction of minerals, however, he was unable to operate at the sites due to community violence.
“We investigated allegations made against Prof Frimpong-Boateng. We went in and did a very thorough investigation, came out with our report, a 116-page report, and the offshoot is that he was not involved in any illegal mining concessions,” he said in an interview with TV3 on Tuesday, April 25.
“He had genuine concessions which he had difficulties even starting because of community violence against his company.”
This follows allegations made against the Professor to the effect that he is involved in illegal mining, which also follow an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) report he authored.
The said report indicts a number of government officials including Information Minister, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, a former Presidential Staffer, Charles Bissue, NPP Stalwart, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko as either being involved in illegal mining popularly known as galamsey or interfering in the fight against illegal mining.
“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.
“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.
“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,” excerpts of the document said.
Professor Frimpong also accused a former NPP MP in the Ashanti Region of selling illegally acquired concessions at GH¢200,000 each.
According to him, this infuriated the party in the constituency so during the 2020 primaries to select a candidate the electorate voted against NPP MP, the then sitting MP, who had more resources than other candidates.
However, some of the persons mentioned in the report have denied the claims. Following the release of the report, Charles Bissue, who is the Former Secretary of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) accused Prof Frimpong Boateng’s associates of engaging in galamsey.
According to Mr Bissue, a number of them including Francis Owusu Achiaw, Mike Gizo and Kwabena Boakye, are all involved in galamsey.
“I am also disappointed in Prof Frimpong Boateng to the extent that he has people around him who were doing the same thing [illegal mining],” he said in an interview on JoyNews.
He said Prof Boateng has not been consistent and truthful to Ghanaians; explaining that the former Minister was not factual in his reportage on the missing excavators.
“At the time he said 500 excavators were missing, I called him and I said Prof that is not factual. You have actually sent about three reports to the National Security Council and the report that you sent reported that we do not have up to even 300 excavators so why 500?
“I called him and he said he knew what he was doing and then three or four years down the line, you come back to say that no excavators were missing.”