|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Minister-designate for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abdulai Jinapor, has stated that the infamous 500 missing excavators scandal is an illusion sparked by journalists.
According to him, the number of excavators seized by the task force of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on illegal mining was 209 and not 500.
This number of excavators, he assured, can be accounted for to the very last one.
Mr. Abu Jinapor, also a member of Parliament for Damongo and former Deputy Chief of Staff, gave this clarification when he appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Wednesday, February 24, 2021, for vetting.
Click here to READ more news articles…..
He said, “I have had a briefing with the Inter-Ministerial Committee on illegal mining and I want to put on record that the information and the documentation they gave me indicate there were no 500 excavators.”
“According to them, it was a media man who put out the number in the public and that became official and caused a huge controversy.”
“According to the report that I have received from them, they confiscated 209 excavators and they are able to account for all these equipment,” he added.
He indicated that some of the excavators were returned to the owners on the orders of the court while the rest were distributed to various assemblies and institutions.
The nominee explained to the Committee that the use of the words seizure and confiscation interchangeably in describing the possession of the excavators are wrong.
According to him, the seizure of equipment is grammatically different from confiscation of equipment per Ghana’s law.
Click here to READ more news articles…..
He stated that the Minerals and Mining, Minerals Operations, Tracking of Earth Moving and Mining Equipment Regulation 2020, LI 2404 and the Minerals Mining Amendment Act 2019, Act 995 make a clear distinction between seizure and confiscation.
“Seizure is when the equipment is taken by force but confiscation is when you go through a judicial process to take possession of the something,” he said.
The Minister-designate noted that for that reason there should not be a definite conclusion that 209 excavators were confiscated ultimately.
Mr. Abu Jinapor explained that the minerals and mining laws have also settled the question of equipment that is used for illegal small-scale mining while Parliament has also given clear instruction on how to handle such seized equipment.
Click here to READ more news articles…..
—
FrongPageGhana.com/Ghana
