Charles Bissue and Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng
Former secretary to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Mining (IMCIM), Charles Onuawonto Bissue, has called out Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng asking him to come clean with regards to illegal mining in the country.
Mr. Bissue, expressing his disappointment in his former boss, stated that Prof Frimpong-Boateng also had some dent to his name regarding the issue, adding that he's aware he [Bissue] knows a lot.
Speaking as a guest on TV3’s Ghana Tonight, Bissue said “Prof. himself is not clean and he knows I know a lot. People like him should come out with the truth.”
His statement comes on the back of the former minister’s report on illegal small-scale mining.
The former Minister, while submitting a report on the work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), not only cited the challenges the committee faced, but also persons he believes contributed to the frustration of his work.
The report, which was addressed to the Chief of Staff and the Ghana Police, implicated some New Patriotic Party (NPP) members, including MPs and top government officials, as having been involved in the galamsey menace.
But Charles Bissue, who was once under fire from a TigerEyePi exposé which cited him for using his office for extortion, claimed that Prof Frimpong-Boateng did not present the entire facts on the menace in the report.
He made it clear that while he is aware of some of the reported facts, he is unaware of others.
Mr. Bissue was surprised that the report has become public after the Committee Chair was invited by the Criminals Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service for investigation in response to some of the contents of a report on the IMCIM submitted to the President and written by then Chairman, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.
“…And then you’re made the Chairman of a committee, you only come out to speak when you’ve been actually directed to the CID to be investigated, this is where my problem is."
He added that "The facts are okay, it is not all of them…Even when the Anas exposé came out, Kweku Baako had the audacity to warn the president to be careful, these are things we have to look at because for me in the spirit of defending this country, I will always speak the truth and there are so many things that one day might come out but not to damage this country but individuals who seem to portray that they are protecting this country and are really not. So Prof, I am disappointed in him because he knew the whole truth about everything but he kept quiet."
FNOQ/DA
