President Nana Akufo-Addo has been asked to immediately dismiss the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Kwaku Asomah Cheremeh and the Chief Executive officer of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, over the increasing exportation of rosewood trees.
The Member of Parliament for Builsa South, Dr. Clement Apaak made the call relying heavily on a report by a US-based organization, Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) that despite the ban on rosewood in the country, a total of 6 million rosewood trees have been exported to China while government claim the ban is in place.
The report titled “Ban-Boozled: How corruption and collusion fuel illegal rosewood trade in Ghana”, revealed how state actors are colluding to export rosewood despite it being banned since 2012.
“After several months of investigations using several undercover agents, they discovered that despite the minister’s latest ban announced recently the Forestry Commission is still issuing permits to NPP members to harvest and export rosewood illegally,” the MP gleaned from the report.
Addressing the press in Parliament on Wednesday, Dr. Clement Apaak also called on President Akufo-Addo to institute a committee to investigate the scandal and punish government officials and Forestry Commission officials involve in the practice.
“There’s been high level of corruption, collusion institutionalized trafficking, and the lack of enforcement at the heart of the illegal rosewood business.”
The Builsa South MP has therefore called on the president to “fire his minister for Lands and Natural Resources Kwaku Asomah Kyeremeh for supervising such rot. He should even have done the honourable thing and resigned by now, because he has virtually committed perjury against the legislature.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Apaak added that he has petitioned the office of the Special Prosecutor to investigate same and apply sanctions to some members he claimed are affiliated to the ruling NPP government.
Read the EIA report here
Source: 3news.com | Ghana]]>
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