Ningo Prampram Member of Parliament, Samuel Nartey George, has likened a reality in Ghana to a piece of fiction being prepared for motion-picture production in Hollywood.
His bemusement is sparked by the spread of illegal mining activities otherwise called galamsey at the background of the President’s residence at his hometown, Kyebi.
A March 2021 report presented to the Chief of Staff by Chairman of then Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) stated among its observations that the backyard garden at the residence of the President was dug up by a constituency youth organiser of the NPP to prospect gold.
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According to Chairman of the IMCIM, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, who singlehandedly put up the report due to abandonment of the Committee by most of its members, he had to reclaim the land to revegetate it for the President as contained in the document.
Commenting on the leaked document Saturday, April 22, 2023, Mr. Nartey George, the lawmaker, questioned how such illegality was perpetuated at the President’s backyard which is supposed to be a security zone without any hindrance.
He told Alfred Ocansey on the Key Points on TV3 that the situation, even though appears like a movie, it is the reality Ghana has to bear.
“What is very telling and it is the stuff of Hollywood fiction but in Ghana it is our reality that the President’s own residence in Kyebi, his garden was dug up in search of gold by the NPP constituency organiser.
“Where was security? The president’s residence in his hometown must be a secuirty zone. Where was his security that his garden got dug up by his own youth organiser searching gold and the president didn’t know about it and they had to go and get Frimpong-Boateng to get a bulldozer and excavator to go and reclaim the land and revegetate the president’s garden?” the vociferous legislator quizzed.
Also, he added the kind of people indicted in the report are so serious that it cannot be taken lightly.
Mr. George opined the head of security at the presidency’s involvement in defending galamsey activities as codified in the report is something that should be of worry to the state.
“Why you cant take the report as a literary piece of work but as something serious is with the kinds of names he mentions.
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“Captain Koda is Head of Presidential Security and he is literally reponsible for the President’s security” but the report says he called a police station in the Eastern region to release excavators they seized because they belonged to a sitting MP who is his brother.
“Familiar benefit over national good,” he stated.
The garden of president @NAkufoAddo's residence in Kyebi was dug up in search of gold by the constituency youth organizer – @samgeorgegh #TheKeyPoints #3NewsGH pic.twitter.com/0tKbzocpTA
— #TV3GH (@tv3_ghana) April 22, 2023
The IMCIM was constituted in 2017 to check illegal mining activities and help clamp down on them through taskforces like Operation Vanguard, Galamstop and others.
However, the Committee faced many challenges because government appointees and party apparatchiks were involved in the illegality according its Chair, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng who was also a minister.
The committee was ostensibly dissolved right after the 2020 elections when it became evident that the ruling party lost some votes to the opposition as a result of the war it waged on the canker.
By Felix Anim-Appau|Onuaonline.com
