The Minority in parliament is leaving no stone unturned to ensure that some 500 excavators which were said to have gone missing under the inter-ministerial task force against galamsey are accounted for.
The caucus in this regard is seeking to resurrect national conversation on the matter which once dominated media discussions earlier this year.
The excavators, seized from illegal miners across the country, were said to have gone missing in February this year prompting an investigation into circumstances surrounding same and prosecute those behind.
Since then, little or nothing has been heard about the matter and the state of the probe.
Unhappy about the seeming silence on the matter, the Minority at a media briefing in Parliament, in Accra, yesterday said they were disappointed at what they said was the cold feet of the government towards the matter.
Caucus spokesperson on energy, Adam Mutawakilu, who addressed the media said despite revelations that the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, was allegedly involved, nothing has happened to him.
According to him, it was time the police came out with their investigation into the matter, so that all persons culpable were made to face the full rigours of the law.
As far as Mr Mutawakilu was concerned, leading members of the governing New Patriotic Party were neck-deep in the missing excavators, hence the lukewarm attitude of the police in their investigation.
The gold products seized during the course of the crackdown by the state on illegal miners, he alleged, were still with officials of the taskforce and the security personnel who were at the frontline against the illegal mining menace.
The unaccounted for excavators and the gold products were being used to finance the campaign activities of the governing party, a reason the police are unable to get to the bottom of the matter, he alleged.
Should the National Democratic Congress (NDC) win the general elections slated for December 7, the Damango MP said the matter would be investigated and persons found guilty prosecuted.
The excavators, he said, would be given back to their owners and the gold products disposed off in line with law.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
