I won't jail any of my appointees on hearsay and mere allegations - Akufo-Addo

He said mere allegations on some of his appointees won't be enough to open criminal proceedings against them.

The President said this at a national dialogue on small-scale mining organized by the Minister of Land and Natural Resources in Accra.

Nana Akufo-Addo, who has been criticised in the past for letting some of his appointees, who have been accused of aiding and abetting galamsey activities go scot-free, said he will only act on such whistle-blowing based on evidence.

“I’m determined to enforce the laws of illegal mining no matter the subject – high or low”, the President said.

“I’ll, however, not act on hearsay or mere allegations without more”, he noted.

However, he added: “I will not hesitate to act, though, when the evidence is hard before the police and I would do so irrespective of the standing of the person or persons involved”.

That, according to him, “is the true meaning of equality before the law”.

Mr Akufo-Addo also said: “I want to build on the modest progress made in my first term”.

“I want to learn from our shortcomings and receive productive input from this forum for purposes of enhancing the regulation of the sector”, he noted.

He said: “Out of this consultative dialogue, I hope we’ll build a national consensus around a national policy on small-scale mining”.

Hopefully, he noted, “at the end of the day, we should be able to build a broad-based national consensus around the necessity to stamp out the menace of illegal small-scale mining and the need to support and grow a responsible small-scale mining”.