Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, the former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, has identified top NPP figures, including Ministers in government at the seat of government, who engage in illegal mining, also known as galamsey.
He listed prominent NPP figures actively engaged in galamsey, including the late Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, also known as Sir John.
According to Frimpong-Boateng’s reporton the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining’s (IMCIM) campaign to combat illegal mining in Ghana, Sir John purposefully chose not to download the GalamStop app, which was made available to regulatory organizations overseeing the forestry sector.
The report stated that “Although it was worrying, I was not surprised that the Forestry Commission did not migrate onto the GalamStop Platform.”
According to Prof. Boateng, Sir John granted logging concessions even in forest reserves.
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“He also gave forestry entry permits to mining companies, both large and small-scale, including those of foreign nationals for prospecting activities at a time when the President had put a ban on that activity,” he added.
“Through Charles Owusu, the Director of Operations at the Forestry Commission, Sir John had Chinese gangs doing mining on his behalf”… “The greatest danger to the forests of Ghana was Sir John,” he added.
According to Boateng, the government made up the story of 500 missing excavators from Galamsey in 2020 in order to get rid of him.
In February 2020, it was reported that the excavators taken from illegal miners had vanished, leading to an investigation into their whereabouts.
While calls were made for the missing excavators to be located and brought to justice, those in charge of the theft of the large machinery were apprehended.
Little to nothing has been said about the situation since then.
