No galamsey in Akufo-Addo’s backyard in Kyebi, says NPP
The allegation about galamsey was made in a controversial report by Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng and sent to the office of the Chief of Staff by the professor, as chairman of the erstwhile Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM)
New Patriotic Party (NPP) constituency executives in Abuakwa South in the Eastern Region have categorically disputed assertions by Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng that illegal mining activity is taking place in President Akufo-Addo’s backyard.
The allegation was made in a controversial report written by Professor Frimpong-Boateng and sent to the Chief of Staff’s office by Frimpong-Boateng, as chairman of the erstwhile Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM).
He claimed that illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, was happening right inside a garden in the house of President Akufo-Addo in Kyebi.
However, NPP leaders in the area claim that the allegation is not factual but ambiguous, lacking detail and names.
“Falls short”
In a statement signed by the NPP Abuakwa South constituency secretary, Julius Okyere, and Communications Officer, Felix Nyarko Acheampong, the party said that, contrary to claims in the report, no anonymous NPP youth organiser in Kyebi had engaged in illegal mining in an area close to the president’s house.
“In the first place, to state that ‘the youth organiser of the NPP in Kyebi’ is involved in any kind of illegality is only vague, as such an allegation falls short of indicating what level of the party structure the said youth organiser occupied at the time of the supposed incident.
“Was he/she a polling station, constituency, regional or national youth organiser? There is nothing like a local youth organiser anywhere in the NPP constitution,” the statement stressed.
The constituency executives stated unequivocally that the then constituency youth organiser had never been associated with any galamsey operation, if the reference to Kyebi is meant to imply that the alleged wrongdoing is attributable to a constituency youth organiser, which renders the allegation devoid of substance.
They said that the location of the president’s house in Kyebi makes it difficult for any unlawful mining operation to take place nearby.
The statement noted that with the exception of those who do not know the house, everyone would agree that the president’s house is not obscured and that it is surrounded by many other houses.
Check for yourselves
The statement added, “For that matter, to suggest that an illegal mining operation has taken place near the walled house, to the extent that it affected parts of a supposed garden in the house, only leaves much to be desired about what method at all was used for such operation.”
They said Professor Frimpong-Boateng would have been pardoned if he had only said that he received such a report through a telephone conversation with Eric Antwi of the president’s office.
The NPP officers implored well-meaning media organisations to visit President Akufo-Addo’s residence in Kyebi to verify and double-check the facts on the ground, and compare them to the allegations contained in the professor’s report.
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