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

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.

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