Professor Frimpong-Boateng Alleges NPP Bigwigs, Jubilee House Staffers Engaged Chinese to do Illegal Mining
- Former minister Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng has alleged that top government and party officials are neck-deep in illegal mining
- He has said in a report that has gone viral that corrupt state and NPP officials recruit Chinese to engage in illegal mining
- Prof Frimpong-Boateng's report stressed that there is a well-orchestrated plan by corrupt people close to the president to make the fight against illegal mining unsuccessful
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Former Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has dropped many bombshells in a report on Ghana's fight against illegal mining.
The crux of the respected surgeon and former public servant's report is that Nana Akufo-Addo government's fight against illegal mining is being stifled by people close to him and high up in rank in the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).
According to him, it is not the case that Chinese nationals illegally mining gold and other precious minerals in Ghana are disrespectful of the country's laws or recalcitrant immigrants.
He disclosed that these foreign nationals have been recruited by NPP bigs and presidential staffers whose offices were inside the Jubilee House.
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"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," Citi News quoted the former public servant in a story on the damaging report.
Kojo Oppong Nkrumah named in damaging report
Prof Frimpong-Boateng also made many allegations against information minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah.
According to the former minister, someone informed him that the information minister had held a meeting of journalists to strategise to bring him (Prof Boateng) down.
According to Prof Frimpong-Boateng, that alleged meeting is the reason for many negative media reports about him.
Prof sacked amid allegations top state officials involved in illegal mining
In 2020, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng was removed from the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) where he had been serving as Chairman.
The IMCIM was one of the agencies the Akufo-Addo government constituted in 2017 to fight the illegal mining menace.
His dismissal was under strange circumstances, but there were rumours that he was sacked because hundreds of excavators seized by state agencies because they were being used for illegal mining suddenly went missing.
Prof Frimpong-Boateng maintains that he was sacked because he was stepping on the toes of people close to the president but who were neck-deep in breaking the extractive sector laws.
After granting an interview on GBC and alleging that Jubilee House staffers and NPP gurus were involved in pillaging Ghana's lush vegetation and freshwater bodies with illegal mining, President Nana Akufo-Addo directed the police to look into his allegations.
Minister on weekdays, heart surgeon on weekends
Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh has reported in a separate story on the renowned health practitioner that he played two important roles in the country.
The experienced Ghanaian doctor was Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation on weekdays and a heart surgeon on weekends.
He ran shifts as a cabinet minister on weekdays and as a hospital staff on weekends.
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Source: YEN.com.gh