Dr Clement Apaak has stated that the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) or the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) should be investigating the alleged involvement of some staff at the presidency in illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) and not CID.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo reportedly authorised the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to investigate allegations made by Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng about the involvement of some staff at the presidency galamsey.
According to the Daily Graphic, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) is in charge of the probe.
Reacting to this in a series of tweets shared, on Monday, Dr Apaak, the Member of Parliament for Builsa South, posited that the CID will end up exonerating the persons implicated.
He added that the president’s choice of the CID to investigate the galamsey allegation of his former science and technology minister, is fishy.
“I wish OSP or CHRAJ rather investigates these allegations.
“The record of the CID under NPP and NADAA'S legendary tendency to clear his appointees of wrong doing, make his order to the police to probe Prof Boateng's claims that people in the Presidency, gov't and party are involved in galamsey suspicious. A plot to clear, time will tell!” parts of the tweets shared by the MP read.
What Prof Frimpong-Boateng said:
Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, in an interview on GBC which GhanaWeb monitored, averred that government officials were behind the operations of illegal miners (galamseyers) in the country.
According to the renowned surgeon, these officials buy the excavators and other equipment for these illegal miners and pump huge sums of money into the project to keep them in business.
Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng's comment comes on the heels of allegations in 2020 that some 500 seized excavators from illegal miners were missing.
He described the news as false and an attempt by some persons in government to sack him as the Environment Minister at the time.
"Let me tell you that I did not take one excavator for anything, they know the truth. Now things are coming up; we know those who are behind it and the party people who are there; people in government, including Jubilee House, who are doing galamsey and so on, even now," he said.
"There was an orchestrated scheme, even within the party and government, to get me out. Why is it that when I left now everyone is in the forest?" he added.
View the tweets shared by the MP below:
I wish OSP or CHRAJ rather investigates these allegations. The record of the CID under NPP and NADAA'S legendary tendency to clear his appointees of wrong doing, make his order to the police to probe Prof Boateng's allegations suspicious. https://t.co/HrPCa2yFTV
The record of the CID under NPP and NADAA'S legendary tendency to clear his appointees of wrong doing, make his order to the police to probe Prof Boateng's claims that people in the Presidency, gov't and party are involved in galamsey suspicious. A plot to clear, time will tell! pic.twitter.com/vLjYX7Zpw7
The Member of Parliament for Builsa South, Dr Clement Apaak