Dr Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary Minority Leader has called for a probe into the report of the defunct Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining.
Dr Forson in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency said the report of Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, former Chairman of the defunct Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, to the President on the failed work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, set up by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to fight the illegal mining (Galamsey) menace, confirmed that the whole “fight” was a fraudulent one.
“It was shrouded in a well-calculated ruse to enable key government officials and functionaries at the Presidency to dabble in the very illicit business of ‘galamsey.
“Despite the President placing a moratorium on April 1, 2017, suspending all artisanal and small-scale mining in the country for a total period of one year and three months, we are told that in 2018, the government, acting through the Forestry Commission and Ministry of Lands, somehow contrived to give out all forest reserves in Ghana for mining activities.”
Dr Forson alleged that to confirm the grand collusion, despite a Cabinet directive in 2019 to suspend the issuance of new licenses and permits, more illegal miners, including Chinese gangs, entered Ghana’s forest reserves with the help of government officials, and the destruction of Ghana’s forests and environment continued unabated.
He said the revealing issues and several others in the report called for a national probe.
