While I will not usually respond to propaganda, it will be a disservice to the discerning Ghanaian if I allow Tiger Eye P.I to get away with his baseless press release. First, I issued a statement underpinned by facts, against the claims made by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) about the government’s effort in the galamsey fight. Albeit not referenced to Tiger Eye P.I, and typical of the nature of his corrupted journalism, they fatuously jumped in with their usual baseless propaganda to serve their paymasters. Although this advice will fall on deafened ears because that is the path they’ve chosen to travel, they should do better.
Now respectfully, let me lay down the facts and I believe Tiger Eye P.I can learn from it.
1. Vetting of licenses begun on 3 September 2018. The Ministry of Information on 30 August 2018 published the commencement date and requirements for the vetting process. Documents required were to be submitted via post or in-person to the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) before 7 September 2018.
2. ORR Resources through its “ghostly representative” presented its documents at a later date. ORR Resources’ license at the time of submission was expiring in two months. Upon receiving the documents, it was tendered for evaluation. I then recommended the company files an application for all other permits required, which includes Environmental Permit.
3. As part of the approval processes, each concession was required to be mapped. This exercise was done per a schedule. The concession in question (as indicated in ORR Resources’ application) was in the Ashanti Region. The mapping team were then in the Central Region enroute to Western, Ashanti and Eastern Region.
4. All applicants were required to pay an amount of GHC3,000.00, to which I directed the “ghostly representative” to pay and take a receipt issued to cover such payment. The risk of delay in getting their application approved before the mapping team leaves the Ashanti Region was high.
5. The exercise did not provide for a mop up, and as such it was prudent and fair to grant the company an opportunity to have the concession mapped while the application is processed. Waiting for the mapping team to complete the entire national exercise just to return later and map out ORR Resource’s concession was not only unwise but at a rather unjustifiable cost to the state.
6. It was in this context, I suggested the application be fast-tracked such that the data from the mapping exercise could be merged with every entry on our system. I did not circumvent any process, and there is evidence to that.
7. I did not demand any money from the applicant with promise of fast tracking or facilitating the process. The money in question was a donation from Bernard Antwi Boasiako [alias Chairman Wontumi] for a party activity. I did not grant the company any rights to resume mining when at the time, the ban was in force as published by Tiger Eye P.I.
8. For the record, I don’t consider your work as an entrapment. In fact, it is hollow and a failed attempt to smear my reputation with lies, just as you’ve done to your victims in the past. I dare say, and I repeat that you are a liar, and should Ghanaians entertain your deceitful antics, this fight will never yield any results.
9. Your claims of me demanding money or bribes is inconsistent with the very footages in the video and publications made in the New Crusading Guide in 2019. Reference the image below.
10. I repeat, that Francis Owusu Akyaw, [a former staff of IMCIM whom I fired for misconduct] orchestrated these secret recordings. The documentary Tiger Eye published had Francis Owusu Akyaw’s name [referred as Owusu in the tape] mentioned as the one behind it.
11. The ban on small scale mining was lifted on 17 December 2018. Before the trailer of the documentary was published [in 2019], I received an anonymous call with a demands for a ransom to be paid so the airing of the video could be stopped. Knowing and convinced by my actions of having done no wrong told the person to go public with whatever they have on me.
12. I stepped out of office as Secretary of the IMCIM just after the documentary was aired to allow a proper and uncompromised investigation to be undertaken. This has act goes to prove I had nothing to hide.
13. In July 2019, the Police after a thorough investigation into the allegations, exonerated me. Report on their investigation is a public knowledge.
14. It is rather ironic that Tiger Eye P.I who in its years of so-called undercover investigations, recognized and subjected its findings to the Police, now finds the institution as lacking the credibility to handle similar cases today.
15. In any event, following a petition to the OSP in 2019, I have availed myself for interrogations, and been very cooperative in unravelling this truth in this case. Mr Martin Amidu [then Special Prosecutor] hinted in his corruption risk assessment of the Agyapa Deal, of the extent to which he had carried his investigation by indicating there was a “matter of identity” yet to be uncovered. I believe Mr. Martin Amidu provided his report on the subject matter in his handing over notes to the new Special Prosecutor.
16. Tiger Eye P.I cannot capitalize on this moment to dissuade Ghanaians from interrogating this matter. Where lies his credibility in the fight against galamsey when he had turned a blind eye to the unprecedented devastation caused by galamseyers to our lands and water bodies? His silence is nothing short of a traitor and a nation wrecker whose interest was to conjure propaganda to take me out for fighting the miscreants in our mining sector.
17. I dare Anas Aremeyaw Anas, and his entire Tiger Eye P.I to publish the Part 2 of that documentary. Why has he shelved that part? Or he’s been paid off to conceal that? Mr Aremeyaw Anas is a wimp, and cannot be trusted.
18. Until I mentioned the name of the IMCIM Chairman, Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng in my recent release, Anas Aremeyaw Anas had remained mute over the defense I put against his claims. Why so? I’m sure he’s alarmed and fears for what will ensue later on.
19. It is no doubt that Anas Aremeyaw Anas has been cowed into silence by his own nemesis, and the persistence at which I expose the untruth about his work. Ghanaians are very discerning and have come to realize the spin he puts on his recordings to defame people. They will put to strict scrutiny every piece of publication he does going forward.
Vindication is in the womb of time!
****SIGNED****
