Convener of the Coalition Against Illegal Mining, Dr Ken Ashigbey has reacted to the arrest and bail of former Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Professor Frimpong-Boateng.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Top Story on Wednesday, he called on the Office of the Special Prosecutor to extend the invite to current members of the Committee.

Although he acknowledged the fact that the former Secretary of the Committee, Charles Bissue is being dealt with and it has been extended to the Chairman, he insists there are more people involved still at post.

“There are several people, several ministers who were also part of this committee and still some of them are still currently at post. So if you want in terms of documentation and all of that, I don't know whether they were expecting that the professor when he was leaving, would carry all of this document with him. Those who are currently in office should also be invited,” he said.

His comment follows details of Frimpong-Boateng’s formal arrest and subsequent GHȼ2 million bail on May 16 when he was invited by the OSP.

This revelation came to light on Wednesday, June 7.

The former Environment Minister was invited by the OSP as “a person necessary for the investigations” into suspected corruption and corruption-related offences in respect to the activities and expenditure of
the dissolved Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM).

He willingly honoured the invitation, however, events that ensued meant that Prof Frimpong-Boateng was a suspect. He was cautioned and granted bail, for which he says a friend had to stand surety, and officers of the OSP had to follow the friend to ascertain his residence.

According to Dr Ashigbey, he wants to believe that the arrest of Prof Boateng has got nothing to do with his report on 'galamsey'.

As a result, noted that “we will be watching the Special Prosecutor very closely by giving him the benefit of the doubt; hoping that this is not the system that would want to shut the Professor down.”

He also said he wants fairness and transparency in the process of the former Environment Minister as he questioned the timing of the arrest.

“Also we would ask questions about the timing of this. This was supposed to have started last year in October and then on the 15th you know, Frimpong Boateng is invited in for this conversation and the question you would want to ask yourself is the coincidence,” he said.

Meanwhile, Prof Frimpong-Boateng in an exclusive interview with JoyNews' Evans Mensah says he feels victimised about the whole process.

According to him, he was surprised by the treatment meted out to him, given his selfless contributions to the country.