Samuel Abdulai Jinapor, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, has refuted claims of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s involvement in ‘galamsey’ and his interference in the fight against illegal mining.
Mr. Jinapor avers that it would be disgraceful for President to be involved in such immoral activities. “The President will not countenance interference in the galamsey fight,” he stressed.
In an interview with the media at the National Youth Conference on natural resources and environmental governance, the Lands Minister stated this in regards to the 37-page report, authored by the former Chairman of the Inter-ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Professor Kwabena-Frimpong-Boateng, which he presented to the Chief of Staff on March 19, 2021.
Samuel Jinapor stated emphatically that it is not in his place to pass judgement on his predecessors’ work in combating galamsey.
“I have no moral right to pass judgement on my predecessors. The good people of Ghana are in a better position to judge and all stakeholders…I don’t want to be drawn into this.”
Samuel Abdulai Jinapor
However, the Minister denied any knowledge of the involvement of the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, in galamsey, describing him as a “decent gentleman, who has been discharging his duties with candour.”
A Rocha Shocked At Akufo-Addo’s Response To ‘Galamsey’ Report
Daryl Bosu, Deputy National Director of A Rocha, described as unfortunate the Presidency’s response in the aftermath of the galamsey report.
The former Chairman of the defunct Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, in a 37-page document, accused government officials of engaging in galamsey or interfering in his work.
However, the presidency responding to the claims in a statement, described the report as a catalogue of personal grievances of Professor Frimpong-Boateng and could best be described as hearsay. The Presidency also tagged the document as not being an official report before Cabinet, as it was submitted in an informal way.
Yet, Daryl Bosu, claimed he and his team were shocked after going through the former Minister’s damning report, thus, joining the many voices calling on the presidency to look into the matter and not allow it to die as witnessed in most cases.
“We have reviewed the report, and we are shocked by the level of complicity on the part of government and persons connected politically. But not really surprised to the extent that, a lot of these issues that the report talked about are issues we have seen on the grounds in many ways, that we have complained about.
“This report is more or less evidence that needs to be looked into. I believe that the report has only served right on all the issues, challenges and the fight against galamsey. It’s up to the president to have taken action when this report was delivered to his office in 2021, it’s very unfortunate for the President to say this about the report. The question we should be asking the president is when this report came to him, what did he do? He has so far not responded to that question. I do not agree that we should leave this report to die, as happened in most cases, particularly when it comes to mining.”
Daryl Bosu
Mr. Bosu bemoaned over cases, where President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo cleared persons alleged to have engaged in illegal mining-related activities.
“When issues of persons in government are found culpable of engaging in illegality, you see President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo coming out to clear these people. A particular case is the Akonta Mining…The president is seen talking about his commitment to the fight against galamsey but there’s no action.
“We need an independent probe, I agree with the MP for petitioning CHRAJ, it’s good that the petition is gone, we would have done same.”
Daryl Bosu
READ ALSO: Minister Of Information Will Never Engage In ‘Galamsey’- Abu Jinapor
