President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo last Friday suspended the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Bosome Freho in the Ashanti Region, Yaw Danso, with immediate effect, for his alleged involvement in galamsey.
A statement from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, signed by the sector Minister, Daniel Botwe, said the suspension was to allow investigation into the matter by the appropriate agencies to verify the authenticity of the claims against him.
The Bosome Freho DCE had been the subject of controversy after some of his Assembly members tried to pass a vote of no confidence in him.
The Assembly members accused Mr. Danso of causing divisions within their ranks, and withholding resources meant for their work.
The decision by President Akufo-Addo to suspend the DCE is alleged to be in connection with an audio in circulation, which went viral on social media, in which he was purportedly heard encouraging illegal mining activities in his district.
It is also the understanding of the Daily Statesman that before the action was taken, some members of the Assembly had already petitioned the President, Chief of Staff, Minister of Local Government and Decentralisation and Minister of Lands and Natural Resources to take a serious look into the allegations.
It would be recalled that President Nana Akufo-Addo, while speaking at a galamsey engagement in Kumasi with the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs), announced that he had summoned the embattled District Chief Executive to defend himself against the charges.
No protection
The President warned that he would not shield any government official found complicit in galamsey activities while speaking to MMDCEs during the engagement.
The President, earlier this month, met with MMDCEs and Regional Ministers in illegal mining endemic areas, and charged them to work actively and closely with central government to reverse the phenomenon of galamsey.
His government, he said, had a lot to do with its reputation, adding that there was a political cost to the galamsey fight but “a cost we should be prepared to pay in the interest of Ghana”.
The President stressed that “you are my representative at the local level, and it cannot be that government fighting the menace and you are found complicit.”
He added: “I will am not in the position to protect anyone who is found in such act against who evidence has been established to be involved in the galamsey”.
