Former Chairman of the defunct Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has alleged that certain individuals in various districts across the country deliberately sabotaged the fight against galamsey.
The former Minister for Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, in an interview with Blakk Rasta on 3FM, monitored by GhanaWeb, disclosed that some individuals responsible for managing drones that were procured to aid the fight against galamsey intentionally undermined the operations to conceal their involvement in the illegal activity.
“In a way, it helped, but there was also sabotage. For example, some of the districts intentionally crashed their drones. They would send the drones out, and they would either go missing or crash into trees, making it difficult to monitor activities from Accra,” he stated.
When asked whether the government of John Mahama was winning the fight against galamsey, the heart surgeon-turned-politician declined to comment.
It will be recalled that in 2017, then-Lands Minister John Peter Amewu faced public backlash over the government’s decision to purchase drones worth $3 million.
He explained that the drones were intended to help monitor and curb illegal logging in the country’s forest reserves.
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