Richard Ahiagbah, Communication Director, NPP
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) constituency executives in Abuakwa South in the Eastern Region have categorically disputed assertions by Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng that illegal mining activities were taking place at President Akufo-Addo’s backyard.
The allegation was contained in a controversial report authored by Prof. Frimpong-Boateng and sent to the Chief of Staff’s office 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 naming.
The NPP said in a statement signed by the Abuakwa South Constituency Secretary, Julius Okyere, and Communications Officer, Felix Nyarko Acheampong, 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 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, rendering this 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.
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.”
According to NPP executives, the President does not even have a garden in his Kyebi mansion, therefore claiming that a piece of his garden was impacted is a blatant lie.
They said Prof. Frimpong-Boateng would have been pardoned if he had only stated 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 the President’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.
By Ernest Kofi Adu