Gabby reacts to allegations made against him in Frimpong Boateng's report on illegal mining

Mr Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, a prominent member of Ghana's ruling New Patriotic Party, has criticized former Minister for Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, over allegations made against him in a report from March 2021.

Otchere-Darko was accused of interfering with the work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) in the report, which was focused on illegal mining, or galamsey, in the country.

During a radio interview with Citi FM, Mr Otchere-Darko, a private legal practitioner expressed his displeasure with the former minister's report and its accusations.

The report stated that he was representing a company accused of engaging in galamsey at the height of the campaign against illegal mining.

Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, according to the report, reported Otchere-Darko's behaviour to President Akufo-Addo, who promised to address the matter.

Otchere-Darko questioned why the former minister did not take appropriate action if he believed that Otchere-Darko had acted improperly.

He went on to say that he had not seen anything in the report to suggest that he had attempted to silence Frimpong-Boateng and demanded that the former minister specifically identify where he had gone wrong and interfered with the Committee's work.

“It tells you how weak the [former] Minister’s understanding of his position is. If what I did was illegitimate, why didn’t he take the right action? He said he had reported me to the president, as if he is a teacher and the president is a headmaster, and I am a prefect,” he said.

Mr Otchere-Darko insisted that his intervention was based on the legality of his clients' actions and the state's alleged illegitimate actions against a company that had received permits and licenses to operate.

He urged Frimpong-Boateng to come forward and state whether he had been instructed to take any illegal action. Otchere-Darko emphasized that his actions were those of a legitimate lawyer representing a client with a legitimate case and not interference.

“Let the [former] Minister come and say that when I called him, I instructed him to do what was not right, let him come and say that when I called him, I was pushing an illegitimate point, let him come and say so. I based my intervention on the legality of what my clients were doing and what I saw to be an illegitimate action of the state against a company that the same state had issued permits and licenses to operate its business.” “If he has his own issues, let him deal with them, but he should not misinterpret a legitimate action of a lawyer on behalf of a client who had a legitimate case as a matter of interference,” Mr. Otchere Darko added.