#StopGalamsey: Prof Frimpong-Boateng arrested

The former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng is under investigation over corruption-related activities.

He is under probe after the Office of the Special Prosecutor invited him for questioning in relation to corruption and corruption-related activities, particularly over his report on the dissolved Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM).

He was arrested for alleged involvement in the missing of some 500 excavators and the involvement of Symphony Limited, the company owned by his son, in illegal mining.

He has been granted GH¢2 million bail after his arrest.

The Special Prosecutor in a statement on Tuesday, May 2, 2023, pledged to take necessary action against all those cited in the IMCIM report authored by Prof Frimpong-Boateng.

It said The OSP welcomes the calls for action and investigations and it assures the public and civil society that its investigation is ongoing and far-reaching and it also covers the matters raised in the report published by the head of the dissolved IMCIM.

The OSP will take necessary action against all persons deemed culpable of corruption and corruption-related offences in the mining sector, it added.

Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng in his report named top officials of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) including Ministers in government at the seat of government involved in illegal mining popularly called galamsey.

In his report on the fight against illegal mining in Ghana by IMCIM, he said the late Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie popularly known as Sir John deliberately failed to subscribe to GalamStop, an app rolled out to regulatory agencies in the forest industry.

The report stated that Although it was worrying, I was not surprised that the Forestry Commission did not migrate onto the GalamStop Platform.

Prof. Boateng indicated that Sir John was giving out timber concessions even in forest reserves for logging.

Some 500 missing excavators from galamseyers in 2020, Boateng said was a fabrication by some individuals in government to get him out of the way.

The excavators seized from illegal miners were said to have gone missing in February 2020 prompting an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the excavators.

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