A US-based political activist and physician, Dr Aurthur Kennedy, has described the sudden interest of the government in the IMCIM ‘galamsey’ report by Professor Frimpong as a PR exercise rather than an exercise of leadership and accountability.

He was speaking on Joy News’ AM Show which was monitored by GhanaWeb.

According to him, the direction by the president to the Police CID to investigate the claims in the report are acts of public relations and not acts that demonstrate leadership and accountability on the matter of illegal mining.

“All this sudden interest in Prof Frimpong-Boateng’s report is really a PR exercise rather than an exercise in leadership and accountability. If they were going to do leadership and accountability, all the two years the report has been sitting there, they would have dealt with it," he said.

To him, government is only trying to protect its reputation.

“The reason they didn’t deal with it was that, they didn’t want to do anything about it and right now, all people are trying to do is to protect their legacies and their reputations rather than do something for Ghana,” he added.

Background:

The Office of the President of the Republic of Ghana described as mere hearsay the allegations made by the former Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation and Chairperson of the erstwhile Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.

According to the Presidency, the document authored by the former minister is not backed with evidence, despite the various allegations implicating government officials as being involved in illegal mining or interfering in the fight against same.

The president has since directed the Police CID to investigate the claims cited in the report.

NW/ DA