Former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has made a damning revelation about the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, in his report on the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining(IMCIM).
According to Prof Frimpong-Boateng, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah assembled a group of journalists at the Forest Hotel in Dodowa to “discuss a strategy to bring me Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng down”.
On how he got to know about this plot, the respected heart surgeon said a friend of his, who is also a journalist, had a call from one of the journalists in the meeting about the discussions that went on.
“He further informed my friend to watch out for headlines in some newspapers, in the days following the meeting,” Prof Frimpong-Boateng wrote in his report on the fight against illegal mining.
The former flagbearer aspirant of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) averred true to the words of the journalist, who posted an article on the issue on Monday, February 10, 2020. The Informer newspaper, whose editor was said to have been part of the meeting, had a banner headline of that story: ‘Stolen Excavators Brouhaha. . .Akufo-Addo sacks Frimpong Boateng. . .For Soiling Image of Govt’.
“As if that was not enough, on Thursday, 13th February 2020 at the 71st Cabinet Meeting, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah in his regular report to Cabinet, spoke about news that was trending in the week. The first thing he mentioned was Frimpong-Boateng and 500 missing excavators.”
Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng
The scientist cited Mr Oppong Nkrumah as one of the ministers who abandoned the IMCIM, despite being members.
“It must be noted that Mr Oppong Nkrumah, as Minister for Information, was a member of the IMCIM and he never called me to find out what I knew about ‘missing excavators’ but he found it worthwhile to magnify it in press and also present the falsehood before Cabinet for reasons best known to him and his co-conspirators.
“If Kojo Oppong Nkrumah and the likes of him have presidential ambitions, they should pursue it on merit and not attempt to destroy a hard working patriot, whose only ambition is work to achieve a Ghana Beyond Aid.”
Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng
Frimpong-Boateng Saddened About Gabby Mining Firm That Destroys The Environment
The committee chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Commission on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), set up by the Akufo-Addo-administration in 2017 to fight against illegal small-scale mining, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, was not happy with the dissolution and accused some big wigs of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for deliberately working against the committee.
He cited the abandonment of the Committee by all ministers, except those at Water and Sanitation and Local Government and Rural Development.
He, however, also pinpoints some factors that worked against the Committee.
“It is extremely important to note that the IMCIM’s activities centered on Small Scale and Artisanal Gold Mining. This task was performed to near perfection. At the time of the inauguration of the Committee, the problem of mining in forest reserves and its attendant destruction of forests, cocoa farms, water bodies, farm lands, as well as harassment of villagers in bordering communities by armed mining guards, including soldiers, were not on the radar screen.
“As will be mentioned later in this write-up, the major challenges that we had in the mining communities occurred in 2018, when the Forestry Commission and the Ministry of Lands itself, decided to give out almost all the forest reserves in this country for mining activities. This was reported to Cabinet at its meeting on 28th February, 2019 (see Cabinet letter on page 4).”
Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng
Prof claimed that despite the Cabinet’s direction to suspend the issuance of all licenses and permits through the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, “and also to ‘suspend the licences already issued for operation in forty-seven (47) forest reserves’, the directives were ignored and the destruction continued.”
“Worse still, soldiers had officially been withdrawn from mining sites but in many areas regular Ghana Army personnel were seen providing security at illegal mining sites. What saddened me most was when Mr. Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko called to defend a company that was actively destroying the environment, especially the forests and River Offin in the Apaprama and Kobro Forests.”
Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng
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