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My son is not involved in mining – Prof Frimpong-Boateng
The Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng has stated that his son is not involved in mining contrary to public speculations that he was engaged in the mining business.
When asked if his son was involved in galamsey [illegal mining] during a media interview after the delivery of President Akufo-Addo’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) in Parliament on Thursday, Prof Frimpong-Boateng said, “he [son] is not.”
When pressed further on what his son was involved in, in respect of mining, Prof Frimpong-Boateng retorted, “he is not involved in anything [mining], the world will get to know very soon.”
Since the revelation that some excavators seized by Operation Vanguard from illegal miners and some small scale mining companies which flouted the ban on small scale mining were missing, there has been public speculation that leading members of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) who were involved in mining had the missing excavators and they were using them secretly during the period of the ban.
There have been some allegations especially from members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that the ban on small scale mining was a “smokescreen” to kick out other miners and allow persons aligned to the NPP space to mine clandestinely whilst the ban was still in force.
In some circles, the name of the son of Prof Frimpong-Boateng has cropped up and is being discussed as someone who is involved in small scale mining clandestinely for his father, even though, the father [Prof Frimpong-Boateng] was the chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Mining and was to superintend the ban on small scale and illegal mining for the sector to be streamlined for responsible mining to save the environment.
The Member of Parliament for Juaboso, Mr Kwabena Mintah-Akandoh in separate radio interviews monitored by Graphic Online on Accra based Okay FM and Asempa FM, for instance, had alleged that whilst the ban was still in force, NPP bigwigs were being allowed to mine secretly whilst others were being harassed and their equipment including some of the missing excavators were being seized.