The Chairman of the dissolved Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has lamented how a New Patriotic Party (NPP) youth organiser in Kyebi, the hometown of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, had the guts to excavate for gold near the house of the first gentleman of the land.
Prof Frimpong-Boateng indicated that part of President Akufo-Addo’s garden was destroyed as a result of the activities of the said youth organiser.
“I need not say that nothing happened to the local youth organiser who caused the damage,” the renowned heart surgeon stated in his report on the activities of the IMCIM.
The report dated Friday, March 19, 2021 also detailed how some big wigs in the NPP got involved in the ignominious degradation of the environment.
The immediate past Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation noted in the report that the activities of these notorious individuals were most felt in the Eastern Region.
“It appears the miners are determined to embarrass the President and Osagyefuo, the Okyenhene, a well-known potent environmentalist,” the report stated, singling out the Region as the most difficult in controlling illegal mining.
“The impunity in the Eastern Region is exemplified by near unbelievable activity in Kyebi.
“I had a telephone call from Mr Eric Antwi of the Office of the President and he narrated that the youth organiser of the NPP in Kyebi was excavating for gold in a field close to the house of H.E. the President of the Republic.
“When we checked it was true. Indeed, part of the garden of the President had been affected. Apparently, the President did not know about this. We quickly dispatched a bulldozer and an excavator to the area to reclaim the land and vegetate it.”