The National Democratic Congress (NDC) representative for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, has asked the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to look into a report on illegal mining in Ghana.
He is requesting that CHRAJ look into allegations of corruption, abuse of public office, conflict of interest, and violations of fundamental human rights by particular public officials and others mentioned in the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) report.
The petition submitted by the MP’s attorneys also requests that CHRAJ look into allegations of corruption, conflict of interest, and abuse of office made by Charles Bissue, the former secretary of the IMCIM, against Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, the former chairman of the IMCIM, regarding the whereabouts of 500 excavators that are alleged to have vanished around February 2020.
According to the petition dated April 25, 2023, the IMCIM report, which was dated March 19, 2021 and was confirmed to have been written by Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, names a number of public officials and other people for corruption, conflict of interest, and abuse of public office, “…the following findings of corruption, conflict of interest and abuse of public office were made: “On Monday 11th January 2021, the task force entered a concession at a location called Bepotenten we had been monitoring for some times. Residents in the area complained about harassment by Chinese miners. The damage to the forest reserve was unimaginable. Big economic trees had been felled and dumped into muddy water bodies to rot. Huge pits were scattered over dozens of acres land. Near cocoa farms had been destroyed. Seven excavators were seized, As usual so[1]called big men started calling. First was Mr. Charles Owusu, who claimed ownership of the concession and of the excavators. This individual happens to be the Operations Manager of the Forestry Commission and there he was mining in a forest reserve without any permit and destroying forests, farm lands, water bodies and indeed the entire biodiversity.”
Some senior government officials were named as having thwarted the then-minister’s attempt to combat the galamsey menace in a 36-page document written by Prof. Boateng and addressed to the President, the chief of staff, and the police.
