Galamsey fight: Akufo-Addo’s promise to put his presidency on the line was a figure of speech - Charles Bissue

Charles Bissue, a former secretary to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), has said that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s promise to “put his presidency on the line” in his opinion, was a “figure of speech”.

Speaking in a JoyNews interview monitored by GhanaWeb, on Tuesday, Bissue suggested that Akufo-Addo never meant that he would step down as president should he fail in the fight against illegal small-scale mining, galamsey.

He added that the president did not give any timeline and was only promising Ghanaians that he was going to deal with galamsey.

Asked about the president’s promise to put his presidency on the line in the fight against galamsey, Bissue said, “Were there timelines… That was a figure of speech. It was a figure of speech".

“For me, it was a figure of speech meaning that I want to deal with this matter,” he reiterated.

The former secretary to the IMCIM made these remarks while reacting to a report on galamsey in Ghana by the former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.

In his report, Prof Frimpong-Boateng, the former chairman of the IMCIM, named members of parliaments and top government officials who are allegedly involved in illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) in Ghana.

Portions of his report indicated that some MPs and government officials were either directly involved in galamsey or were using their power to protect those involved in the menace.

The 36-page report, which Prof. Frimpong addressed to the Chief of Staff and the Ghana Police Service, according to myjoyonline.com, implicated the former MP for Manso Nkwanta, Joseph Albert Quarm; director of operations at the presidency, Lord Commey; executive assistant and head of social media at the presidency, Charles Nii Teiko; and Frank Asiedu Bekoe, director of political affairs at the Office of the Chief of Staff.

Prof. Frimpong Boateng also accused the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, of hatching a plot to bring him down over his (Frimpong Boateng's) fight against the menace.

Even though some government officials cited in the report have refuted the allegations, the Office of the President has indicated that the report was not formally delivered to the Office of the President.

It described the report as a catalogue of personal grievances by Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, intended to respond to some issues he faced as Chairperson of the IMCIM.

It added that while Prof. Frimpong-Boateng makes serious allegations against some government appointees as having been involved in, supporting or interfering with the fight against illegal mining, not a single piece of evidence was adduced or presented to enable the claims to be properly investigated.

The Office of the President described the allegations contained in the document as hearsay.

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