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Former Head of the Monitoring Unit at the Forestry Commission, Charles Owusu has officially responded to former Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng's report on galamsey activities in the country which sought to implicate the former.

Prof Frimpong-Boateng's report

Prof Frimpong-Boateng’s 36-page report titled: ‘Report On The IMCIM And The Way Forward,’ detailed the complicity of top government officials, some at the presidency, Members of Parliament on both sides of the divide as well as top party officials who have been engaged in the illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) business.

He accused late former Forestry Commission boss, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, popularly known as Sir John, of engaging in legal mining with his right-hand man Charles Owusu.

"Through Charles Owusu, the Director of Operations at the Forestry Commission, Sir John had Chinese gangs doing mining on his behalf. The issue about rosewood is something that is beyond the scope of this report.

“I remember that at a meeting in the conference room of the President, I told the president in the presence of Sir John that the greatest danger to the forests of Ghana was Sir John,” page 10 of the report stated.

Charles fights back

In a panel discussion on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo', Charles Owusu shot down the allegations against him, insisting he has never met or called the heart surgeon over a seized excavator during his time at the Forestry Commission.

“I have never called Prof. Frimpong-Boateng in my life, I don’t even have his number, I don’t even know where his Ministry is . . . I don’t have any mining site I work on. In my life I have never met him face-to-face, I have only seen him from afar and on TV. . . I have never spoken to him in my life.”