Aspiring flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwabena Agyei Agyepong says he would have acted with urgency on Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng’s galamsey report if he were the President.

In a report presented to the Chief of Staff in March 2021, the former Minister of Science, Environment, Technology and Innovation accused some NPP officials of engaging in and promoting illegal mining.

But Kwabena Agyepong, a former General Secretary of the NPP seeking to be elected the party’s presidential candidate for the 2024 presidential election, says action on the report should be taken immediately, adding that the report should not have been on the desk of the President for two years without attention.

Speaking to Nhyira FM’s Nana Jantuah on Kuro Yi Mu Nsem, Kwabena Agyepong said “that report will not lie on my desk for two years without attention if indeed he did.”

He however said Prof. Frimpong-Boateng could have come out boldly to tell the President to implement some recommendations in the report and resign if the President failed to do so.

“Why has Prof taken so long? Now that you are out people would say it is because you are no more (in government) that’s why you are coming out now. I would have expected that when he was the Minister then, the firm action would be to come out to Cabinet that I want to do this and that and if the President says he wouldn’t agree, then he resigns,” he opined.

Meanwhile, Mr. Agyepong says he will put a moratorium on surface mining, including community mining, to regenerate the forests in the country should he become President.

He says the only mining activity he would approve as President is deep mining which involves huge capital to make sure mining is done sustainably.

“I have said that mining has not been good for Africa. What has Ghana gotten from mining? Go to where we mine in the country and you will see abject poverty. I don’t like the galamsey at all,” he said.