West News Wire: Charles Adu Boahen, Ghana’s state minister of finance, has been fired by President Nana Akufo-Addo, the presidency announced on Monday.
The president said in a statement that he had taken the move after learning of the allegations made against Adu Boahen in a story concerning small-scale gold mining.
It further stated that Akufo-Addo had forwarded the case to the special prosecutor for additional inquiries.
Adu Boahen did not answer Reuters’s request for comment right away.
In Ghana, the second-largest gold producer in Africa, artisanal mining is common and makes up around one-third of the nation’s output. Boahen was accused of accepting kickbacks from artisanal mine investors in a recent exposé by disgraced journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
Ghana’s finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta is also facing calls for dismissal from members of parliament who accuse him of corruption and economic mismanagement as the country faces its worst economic crisis in a generation.
On November 6, hundreds of protesters marched through the capital city Accra, calling for the resignation of President Nana Akufo-Addo amid an economic crisis that has seen fuel and food costs spiral to record levels.
