The National Youth Organizer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Henry Nana Boakye, has blamed the coronavirus pandemic for the delay in investigation into the missing excavators.

Speaking on TV3’s New Day on Thursday, August 27, Nana Bee, as he is popularly known, stated that “there was a lockdown and nobody was supposed to move. People who probably would be involved must be invited. It can affect it and it has affected it. The Covid situation has affected every sector.”

In February 2020, excavators that were seized by the government from illegal small scale miners (galamseyers) were reported missing.

Subsequently, the Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng wrote to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to investigate the disappearance of the earth moving equipment.

The central Regional Vice-Chairman of the NPP, Horace Ekow Ewusi and some five other persons were invited over their alleged role in the matter to assist in investigations.

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) have been on the neck of the government to prosecute the individuals who were allegedly involved in the scandal.

In response to this, Henry Nana Boakye responded that “I don’t think that we need to be operating on the whims and caprices of the opposition.

“It’s the work of any responsible opposition to ask questions and we welcome that. But the fact that you can ask questions doesn’t mean that you are supposed to give a timeline for these things”