Akufo-Addo's Lawyer Denies the Existence of Frimpong Boateng’s Report on Galamsey
- Akufo-Addo’s legal counsel, Kow Essuman, has denied the existence of the Frimpong-Boateng report on galamsey
- Essuman said the document was a list of suggestions by Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, not a formal report
- His remarks come amid renewed public scrutiny of the former president’s fight against illegal mining
Former President Akufo-Addo's legal counsel, Kow Essuman, has weighed in on the ongoing conversation about the illegal mining menace, also known as galamsey, in Ghana.
Speaking on his former boss's efforts to curb the menace, Kow Essuman denied the existence of Professor Frimpong-Boateng's report on galamsey.
Source: Facebook
According to him, the president sought Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s expertise on how best to deal with the illegal mining menace in the country.
Speaking about the former president’s efforts to fight the menace, Essuman said the professor put together a set of ideas, which were presented to the president.
Essuman explained that the ideas were eventually leaked to the public and mischaracterised as an official report.
“What was out there as a Frimpong-Boateng report was really no report. If my memory serves me right, he wrote down what he thought were some of the ways we could deal with galamsey, and he handed it over to the presidency at the time," Essuman said in an interview with Starr FM on Thursday, October 9, 2025.
The Prof. Frimpong-Boateng report on galamsey
In 2023, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, the former chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), cited persons within the then Akufo-Addo administration who were allegedly involved in galamsey.
He accused the alleged illegal miners of frustrating his efforts to fight illegal mining when he served as Minister for Environment.
The former minister of state also accused former President Akufo-Addo of showing little commitment to the fight against galamsey.
“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," he was quoted in a Joy News report.
“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 who are doing or supporting illegal mining or interfering with the fight against the menace,” excerpts of the document said.
Source: Facebook
NAIMOS cracks down on illegal mining
Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh reported earlier that NAIMOS arrested two Chinese nationals and some Ghanaians for engaging in illegal mining in the Tano Anwia Forest Reserve.
The task force destroyed 12 structures and seized excavators, water pumps, and a Land Cruiser during the raid.
This forms part of the government’s efforts to clamp down on galamsey in the Western and Western North Regions.
Proofreading by Samuel Gitonga, copy editor at YEN.com.gh.
Source: YEN.com.gh
