Attorney General, Godfred Dame, has advised that little attention be given to Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boatengs report on illegal mining.
According to him, the former Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Minings reports were his opinion and must be investigated to justify their authenticity.
I realise that even if the report made reference to Heritage Imperial, which you just brought up but significantly, it omitted reference to the judgment that has been set aside and all that, I think that these are very important matters and all that.
Preliminarily, I indicate or suggest that it is not the full perspective of issues that were addressed by the respected Professor, and its just his view on certain matters. It is being put through the processes and I understand that there are some petitions at CHRAJ and Special Prosecutors office, and that is the process that we all have to subscribe to, he said in a yet-to-be-aired interview on JoyNews.
Responding to questions on whether it was fair to describe Professor Boatengss report as his view, he said, Yes, because even an as Attorney General, when I take a matter to court, its my view on the matter, and many a time, the court does not subscribe to our view.
He continued, The galamsey matters that we have just discussed there were some convictions in the Eastern Region. Two persons were sentenced to terms of at least 18 years. This morning, I confirmed with my Eastern regional head that one of them the conviction was set aside on appeal, and the convictions relating to one of them were affirmed.
So really a report or a statement by the Attorney General does not constitute evidence against any person. The evidence would have to be adduced before the proper forum. So the statement set out in a report, emanating from a person respected, yes in my view has to be tested. There is no basis for a person to accord any sanctity to such a report, he added.
On April,20, the former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, named some top government officials as being complicit in the illegal mining menace.
The renowned heart surgeon indicated that the rot goes as high as the seat of government, the Jubilee House.
Prof. Boateng stressed that the allegations of some 500 missing excavators from illegal miners in 2020 were fabrications of some persons in government to get him out of the way.
Following the claim, there were calls from a cross-section of Ghanaians for state security agencies to look into it.
Subsequently, the President asked the Ghana Police Service to probe the matter.
This, the former Minister has written to the presidency, naming the specific individuals he referred to in his claim.
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