National security in trouble

In a development that raises issues of interference with the work of the police, the Chief Director of the Ministry of National Security, H. Imbeah has confirmed talking to the Ashanti Regional Police Commander to get two people who had been arrested for their alleged involvement in illegal teak dealings at the Afrenso Brohuma Forest Reserve released.

Interestingly, the people who were arrested by the Ashanti Regional Forestry taskforce, were connected to Mr. Asante Bediako, a national security operative who works with the One Stop Collecting Point (OSCP), a body set up to operate under the National Security Council, to prevent illegalities in the teak industry and to prevent leakages and diversion of timber revenue into private pockets.

Those arrested were Samuel Asare Bediako, younger brother of the national security operative and Kwame Ansah Takyi.

Though the arrest was made at the forest reserve in the Ashanti Region, it is not clear how the information got to the Chief Director for him to in turn talk to the Ashanti Regional Police Commander to seek the release of the suspects.

The people were busted by the Forestry Commission’s Task Force in the Afrenso Brohuma Forest Reserve in the Offinso District of Ashanti, stealing teak trees without any document from the Forestry Commission (FC) that permits them to harvest the trees.

They were caught after they had cut 291 teak trees from compartment 1 and 4 of the Afrenso Brohuma reserve.

Mr. Mbeah said that he called the Commander on the arrest of the people because he had realised that the people who were arrested were not carrying out any illegal activity but were at the reserve as people who had been put there by Mr. Bediako to prevent illegal chainsaw operators from exploiting trees in the reserve, which had been allocated to him (Bediako).

In a sharp contrast, Bediako, who was present at the meeting between The Chronicle and the Chief Director together with Enock Hemans Cobbina, officer-in-charge of non-tax revenue at the Ministry of Finance, confirmed that the arrested people had actually gone in to harvest some trees.

He however explained that another group of people who were at the reserve as private security personnel were also arrested by police a day after the first two people had been arrested.

Mr. Mbeah later noted that Bediako had made payments that should allow him to exploit timber in the reserve.

A payment receipt issued by the Forestry Commission on November 3, 2006 to Ricasbed Ltd the company that Bediako has interest in, which had been allocated the reserve, showed that a total of ¢471,000,000 had been paid out of an amount of over One billion cedis (¢1,188,600,000) quoted as the required full amount that ought to be paid by the company before a permit could be issued to it to enable it commence operations in the reserve.

Members of OSCP have expressed surprise that Mr. Bediako, who was described as the National Coordinator of the group, had been embroiled in an illegal teak business, an act he is supposed to check and prevent others from engaging in.

After the members of Ghana Association of Teak Exporters (GHATEX) passed a vote of no confidence in Mr. Bediako and his entire executives early this year, they together formed an NGO, calling itself Environmental Monitoring Foundation (EMF), which is said to be fighting illegal teak operations and curbing the leakages of revenue from the teak sector.

It is alleged that following the establishment of the EMF, Mr. Bediako was picked as a member of the OSCP.

The Chronicle’s intelligence has it that Mr. Bediako’s operatives were doing the illegal business under the name of Riscabed, the company he used to be Managing Director of, which he said is currently under the management of one Dr. Yaw Sarfo Boafo.

Mr. Bediako disclosed that because of his position as a member of the OSCP, he could not operate the company, Riscabed.

Surprisingly, the efforts of the task force of the FC, which apprehended the two, came to nothing. The illegal operators got away in the night of Monday, unknown to the Forestry District Office in Offinso, the Ashanti Regional Office of the FC and the police investigator attached to the FC in Kumasi, ostensibly due to the orders from Mr. Imbeah.

The Chronicle got hint of this illegal operation last week Monday and started investigating it. The Chief Executive of the FC, Mr. John Ekow Otoo, however, told the paper that he was not aware of the release of the suspects.

Mr. Otoo told this reporter on the phone that it would be better for this reporter to inquire from the police whether they had granted bail to the suspects or not.

Not satisfied with the reply of the Chief Executive, The Chronicle contacted T. Brown, the National Manager of the Plantation Department of the FC, who oversees the operations of teak plantations, about the release of the suspects.

Mr. Brown said that he was also not aware of their release, adding that he thought that the suspects were still awaiting prosecution. According to him, his officers in Kumasi had not furnished him with any information concerning the release of the illegal operators.

The National Plantation Manager emphasized that Mr. Bediako had no right to enter into the reserve, because he had no documents covering his operations in the reserve.

He admitted that Mr. Bediako had made part payment of ¢471 million, which Bediako disclosed to this paper in an interview.

Mr. Brown indicated that the part-payment made by Mr. Bediako does not guarantee him the permit to enter into the reserve, as he had not finished paying his total cost.

Earlier, Mr. Bediako said that he had a permit from the FC since 2000, but he was not given work to do because he was pursuing them over their practices that had led to government losing several billions of cedis.

According to Mr. Bediako, since he launched the crusade against illegal operations of some timber men and officials of FC, over ¢40 billion had been recovered from illegal operations and some timber men who owed the government.

He said that his boys were arrested just because of hatred due to his stance against illegal operations in the timber industry.