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The Chairman of the dissolved Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has detailed how an NPP MP took mining concessions from locals and sold them to the Chinese.
The former MP for Manso Nkwanta Constituency in the Ashanti Region, Joseph Albert Quarm, is reported to have acquired several dozens of large-scale concessions in his district which he ended up selling to private individuals.
These Chinese nationals, according to the document titled "Report on the work of the IMCIM and the way forward", invaded the forest with heavy machinery and mined gold and in the process degraded the forest, and farmlands. It added that cocoa farms were also destroyed without any compensation to traditional landowners.
"The Chief and opinion leader were unhappy with the invasion of the forest and farmland, as people used the forest resources sustainably without any prior information to chiefs and other traditional leaders," the report noted.
Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng expressed bewilderment at the total disregard for the president’s commitment to protecting the environment as "many party officials from the National to the unit committee level have their friends, agents, relatives, financiers engaged in illegal mining."
The former MP Joseph Albert Quarm is said to have lost his 2020 primaries due to his actions.
Read the full report below:
YNA/FNOQ
