'Where was security?' - Sam George on allegations of NPP youth organizer digging Akufo-Addo's garden for gold

The Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, Sam Nartey George, has expressed shock about the constituency youth organizer in Kyebi, the hometown of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, being named among the key players in unlawful small-scale mining in the area.

Sam George was reacting to the report authored by a former Minister of Science and Technology, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, on galamsey which disclosed that President Akufo-Addo's yard was partially excavated by the constituency youth organizer who was looking for gold.

"But you know what is very telling, and it is the stuff of Hollywood fiction but in Ghana it is our reality that the president's own residence in Kyebi, his garden was dug up...Portions of President Akufo-Addo's garden was dug up in search of gold by the constituency youth organizer," he said.

In the report, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng listed various powerful individuals from the nation who were complicit in the threat and meddled with the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), of which he served as Chair.

The outspoken MP, appalled by some of the revelations in the report, while speaking on the issue on The Key Point on TV3, questioned the use of security, emphasizing that the president's home is a security zone thus needed to be guarded at all cost.

"Where was security? The president's home in his hometown at Kyebi must be a security zone. Where was his security that his garden got dug up by his own youth organizer searching gold and the president didn't know about it? And then Frimpong-Boateng had to go and get a bulldozer and excavator to go and reclaim the land and revegetate the president's garden so that the president can come home and have a garden. Jesus Christ!"

The legislator stressed that the report should not be taken on the surface, noting that the issue must be dealt with, with all seriousness.

He also criticised the former head of national security, Captain (rtd) Edmund Kojo Koda, accusing him of being careless and supporting perpetrators when he was supposed to protect the country from the canker.

In his words, "The persons who have been mentioned...and you see Frimpong-Boateng's report why you cannot take it as a literary piece of work but as something serious. It's the kinds of names he mentioned. Captain Koda is head of national security. He is literally responsible for the president's security. Excavators are arrested doing galamsey, doing illegal mining and Captain Koda calls the police station in the Eastern region where the excavators that were seized were sent...and he orders the police to release the excavators because the persons whose excavators it is, is another MP, a sitting MP who is his brother. So familial benefit over national good."

The garden of president @NAkufoAddo's residence in Kyebi was dug up in search of gold by the constituency youth organizer - @samgeorgegh #TheKeyPoints #3NewsGH pic.twitter.com/0tKbzocpTA

— #TV3GH (@tv3_ghana) April 22, 2023