Minister-Designate for Railway Development, John Peter Amewu has insisted that he never seized excavators during his tenure as Minister of Lands and Natural Resources.

A number of the excavators that were at illegal mining sites were seized by the Inter-Ministerial Committee Task Force on Illegal Mining during the peak of the war against illegal mining in Ghana

Peter Amewu during his vetting however said that the excavators were withdrawn and not seized.

“While I was the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, I never seized any excavator. What I did when I was the Minister for that sector was to ask for the withdrawal of excavators from mining sites. About 500 were withdrawn from the sites, but they were not seized,” Peter Amewu told Parliament’s Appointment Committee. The excavators became a topical issue during Amewu’s tenure after it emerged that they had disappeared from the district assemblies where they were being kept.

There were calls for sanctions against persons behind the disappearance of the excavators.

Some persons were subsequently arrested over the disappearance of the missing equipment and cautioned with the offence of stealing and abetment to stealing.