Influential New Patriotic Party (NPP) lawmaker, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong has “begged” President Nana Akufo-Addo to relieve the Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng of his post, MyNewsGh.com reports.

According to the Assin Central Member of Parliament (MP), the heart surgeon who has been made the head of the committee fighting the illegal mining menace in Ghana has “failed” and therefore must be “cleaned” before he and his team bring further shame to the president.

“As for “galamsey”, we have failed as a government and immediately the president must dissolve and withdraw both Galamstop and Operation Vanguard; they are feeding fat on the “galamsey” fight and soldiers are fighting to be in that team; the people that are in charge have disgraced the president, it is so sad and immediately he has to stop everybody, including the minister”, he said in an interview on NET2 TV monitored by MyNewsGh.com on Monday night.

The maverick legislator says the evidence of the rot in the “galamsey” fight available to him on tape is so “sickening” that it would affect the fortunes of the NPP should he release it; “but what I’m saying is that, the president must remove all of them without excluding anybody or there are four regions that we would lose”.

Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng was made Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) by President Nana Akufo Addo in March 2017 to address the issue of illegal mining in Ghana after placing an initial six months ban on the illegal trade.

The members of the Committee are made up of Ministers from the following Ministries: Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) – (Chairperson), Lands and Natural Resources; Local Government and Rural Development; Chieftaincy & Religious Affairs; Regional Re-Organisation and Development; Sanitation and Water Resources, Interior, Defence, Information, Mr. Charles Bissue, a Presidential Staffer (Secretary to the Committee), who has resigned.

But Kennedy Agyapong says “these men have turned the “galamsey” fight into a gold mine and have disgraced the president; I recommend that he sacks all of them because what they have done is disgusting and sickening; important personalities, they couldn’t control themselves at the sight of money, forgetting that they would die someday”.

“They have failed; they have failed the president and therefore the president has to stop them; nobody should remain in Charles Bissue’s office or Prof. Frimpong Boateng’s office, he should stop all of them; I know what I’m talking about, it is so disgusting”, Ken Agyapong fumed.