The Minority in Parliament has intensified calls for President John Dramani Mahama to take decisive action against the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE)
The Minority in Parliament has intensified calls for President John Dramani Mahama to take decisive action against the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Birim Central, Solomon Kusi Brako, following mounting allegations of corruption, abuse of office, and public misconduct linked to illegal mining activities in the Akyem Oda Municipality.
The latest uproar comes after the MCE was accused of extorting money from illegal miners, commonly known as galamseyers, and allegedly granting them freedom to continue their operations — a move the Minority describes as a betrayal of the government’s stated commitment to ending the galamsey menace.
Addressing the media in Parliament, the Second Deputy Minority Whip, Jerry Ahmed Shaib, disclosed that the MCE had openly admitted to imposing fines on illegal miners without any legal backing or official documentation.
He alleged that some of the miners — reportedly members and local executives of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Akyem Oda area — paid as much as GH₵15,000 each to the MCE’s office.
“The Minority Caucus in Parliament is scandalized by the admission of the Municipal Chief Executive of Birim Central, Solomon Kusi Brako, that he took money from illegal miners operating in the Akyem Oda enclave and allowed them to continue destroying the environment,” Shaib stated.
According to him, the situation worsened when the same MCE allegedly turned around to direct the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAMOS) to burn the mining equipment of those who had earlier paid him, sparking anger among the affected miners.
“This was after some of these illegal miners, who identified themselves as NDC branch executives, complained bitterly that the same MCE who had taken money from them later ordered NAMOS to their sites to destroy their excavators. Such conduct is unbecoming of a government representative,” he added.
The Minority has since called on President Mahama to sanction Brako, stressing that his actions directly undermine the national anti-galamsey efforts that have seen several arrests, deportations, and policy interventions in recent years.
“If the President truly wants to fight galamsey, he must first discipline his own appointees who sabotage the process. The Birim Central MCE’s behavior is a clear contradiction to the President’s stated agenda,” Shaib said.
This controversy adds to the growing public scrutiny surrounding Solomon Kusi Brako’s stewardship of the Birim Central Assembly.
Only weeks ago, the MCE came under severe criticism over a viral Facebook exchange in which he sarcastically claimed to have “eaten Tuo Zaafi” with GH₵6 million from the Assembly’s Common Fund.
That remark — seen by many as an open mockery of accountability — triggered widespread outrage among residents of Akyem Oda and civil society groups who accused him of trivializing concerns over how public funds were being used in a municipality struggling with poor infrastructure, sanitation challenges, and stalled community projects.
Despite his attempt to retract and describe the “Tuo Zaafi” comment as fake, screenshots of the exchange circulated widely, fueling demands for an investigation into both his public utterances and financial management practices at the Assembly.
Observers say these twin scandals — the galamsey bribe allegations and the Common Fund controversy — paint a troubling picture of mismanagement and impunity at the local government level.
Calls have therefore intensified for the Local Government Ministry and the Presidency to conduct a full-scale inquiry into Brako’s conduct, with civil society organizations warning that failure to act could further erode public confidence in the government’s decentralization and anti-corruption efforts.
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