The Member of Parliament for Builsa South Constituency in the Upper East East Region, Dr. Clement Apaak has expressed fears that government’s committee set up to probe the smuggling of Rosewood in the country may not be able to do a clean job.
According to him, the Board is made up of persons who have already been implicated in the smuggling hence their commitment to the job is questionable.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Monday, the legislator who has been at the fore of the fight against the indiscriminate cutting of Rosewood said although he expects the committee’s findings within the stipulated time, the government should have formed the committee with neutral individuals.
“In five weeks, we expect to see the report but within that period, we will continue to monitor, advocate and draw attention on such illegalities. When the Minister spoke about the terms of reference of the committee, I found it rather interesting that some indictments that were made in the report by the EIA suggested that elements of the ruling party, by and large, were beneficiaries of these permits. I would have thought that it should have been part of the choice of conditions for the committee because the Minister himself is supposed to be core when a particular political party is in power.”
“But these elements of that political party are beneficiaries of this illegality; then that certainly tells you that the quagmire that the Minister finds himself in. That is why I would have thought that in all honesty, the committee should have been formed outside of all the entities and ministries that have been implicated as far as the EIA report is concerned. You can’t have the same entities to investigate themselves over allegations made against them. It will simply not give room for a thorough, honest and proper investigation and that is my biggest worry”, he added.
Government through the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has inaugurated a seven-member committee to investigate the findings of the US-based Environmental Investigations Agency’s (EIA) publication that alleged that rosewood smuggling is rampant in the country despite the ban.
The committee will be headed by the Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural resources, Benito Owusu-Bio.
Members of the committee have five weeks to investigate the matter and report their findings.
Dr. Clement Apaak expressed his disappointment with the enforcement of the ban on the felling of Rosewood because he feels the ongoing illegal exports of rosewood makes the ban ‘non-existent’.
He recently petitioned the Special Prosecutor to investigate the report on alleged illegal felling of Rosewood in Ghana.