Executives of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Eastern Region's Abuakwa South constituency have refuted allegations made in the contentious report of the former Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) that galamsey was taking place directly in the garden of President Akufo-Addo's home in Kyebi.

Contrary to claims made in the report written by Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation and chairman of the IMCIM, no anonymous youth organizer of the NPP in Kyebi had engaged in illegal mining in a region close to the president's home, according to a statement released on Tuesday and signed by Felix Nyarko Acheampong, the party's constituency communications officer, and Julius Okyere, the constituency secretary.

“In the first place, to state that “the Youth Organizer of the NPP in Kyebi” is involved in any kind of illegality, is only vague, as such allegation falls short of indicating what level of the party structure the said Youth Organizer occupied at the time of the supposed incident. Was he/she a Polling Station, Constituency, Regional or National Youth Organizer? There is nothing like a local Youth Organizer anywhere in the NPP Constitution.

“Indeed, if his reference to Kyebi is meant to indicate that the supposed wrongdoing is attributable to a certain Constituency Youth Organizer, then the Constituency executives wish to emphatically state, that the then Constituency Youth Organizer has never been associated whatsoever, with galamsey operation; hence, rendering this allegation short of substance.

“Secondly, the very location of the President’s Kyebi residence in itself, makes it impossible for any illegal mining operation to take place even close to it. Except those who do not know the house, everyone would attest to the fact that the President’s house is not obscured, as it is closely surrounded by many other houses. For that matter, to suggest that an illegal mining operation has taken place near the walled house, to the extend that it affected parts of a supposed garden in the house, only lives much to be desired about what method at all wasused for such operation.

“To add to the above, the President does not even have a garden, so to speak, in his Kyebi residence; therefore, to state that a section of his garden was affected, is nothing but palpable falsehood. The Learned Professor would have, perhaps, been forgiven if he had only maintained that such report got to him through a phone call placed to him by Mr. Eric Antwi of the office of the President; but to have continued to say that he personally followed up to see with his very eyes, the supposed incident, simply casts a huge slur on the integrity of both the Former Minister and his work as Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee. We entreat well meaning media houses to come to the President’s residence in Kyebi to check and double check the facts on the ground, and compare same with the allegations contained in that section of Professor Frimpong-Boateng’s report.

Below is the Abuakwa South NPP statement