Today in History: Missing excavators: Perpetrators to be prosecuted, no one will be spared - Government

A member of the governing New Patriotic Party and then Member of Parliament for Madina, Lawyer Yaw Buaben Asamoa in February 2020, expressed his belief in the government's commitment to bringing to book persons who would be found culpable in the issue of some 500 seized excavators that went missing.

Emphasizing the point, Mr. Buaben Asamoa stated that not even members of the ruling party were going to be spared if found guilty.

Read the full article as first published by peacefmonline.com below:

National Communications Director for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Lawyer Yaw Buabeng Asamoah, strongly believes anyone found to have been culpable in the missing excavators saga will face the full rigours of the law.

Not even members of the ruling party will go scot-free, he assures.

According to him, government's commitment to the fight against corruption remains unabated, therefore acts that undermine the fight against illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, will certainly not be condoned.

Excavators with wings?

At the peak of the fight against illegal mining between 2017 and 2018, many earth-moving machines said to be numbering about 500 were seized by Operation Vanguard, an operational team made up of various security personnel purposely set up to clamp down on illegal mining.

The then sector Minister, John Peter Amewu who sanctioned the seizure directed them to be parked at the premises of the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).

Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, the Minister for Environment, Science, Technology & Innovation and also Chairperson of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), disclosed recently that most of the excavators that were seized from illegal miners had vanished.

No-one will be spared!

Speaking on Okay FM's Ade Akye Abia programme, Yaw Buaben Asamoa, who is also the MP for Adentan Constituency, charged members of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) not to be overly excited about news of the missing excavators as a sign of the government's broken resolve to tame corruption.

"The NPP Government took steps to end illegal mining and that fight so far has been progressive so this issue of missing excavators will be investigated thoroughly . . ."

"This is the more reason why the police have been asked to investigate the matter with some arrests on-going. This should tell you that anyone involved in this act will not be spared," he said.