Popular legal practitioner and convenor of the #FixTheCountry social movement, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, has reacted to the latest investigative work by The Fourth Estate, calling for accountability for those implicated in the report.
The Mayor of Kumasi, Sam Pyne; Ashanti Regional Chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wuntumi; and other prominent NPP members have been cited as key players in the destruction of forest gold reserves in the Ashanti Region and other areas.
According to the report, these individuals obtained leases and mining permits from the Minerals Commission. However, their activities deviated from standard practices, leading to the destruction of hectares of forest reserves.
In his reaction, Mr. Vormawor described the report as a ‘groundbreaking work on the intricate web of prominent government politicians obtaining mining leases in forest reserves,’ adding that its findings were ‘completely insane!’
“Heads must roll,” he demanded.
Meanwhile, other prominent Ghanaians have also reacted to the report since its release in the early hours of Thursday, September 5.
Prof. Kwaku Asare, a renowned US-based Ghanaian academic, stated in a Facebook post that mining in forest reserves is illogical.
“Mining concessions in forest reserves defies logic— unless we embrace the absurd notion of sustainable destruction,” he wrote.