Seth Mantey, a former journalist with Accra-based Peace FM indicted in Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng’s galamsey report, has denied any involvement in the sale of excavators.
Mr Mantey said the former Environment Minister’s allegations against him are false.
Setting records straight at a press conference, he also denied ever giving an official statement to Prof Frimpong-Boateng, who was the chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM).
This follows the Attorney General’s opinion which said the 36-page report was empty and did not provide evidence for the persons indicted to be prosecuted.
The Attorney, Godfred Yeboah Dame, therefore asked the Police CID to discharge the accused persons except for three, including Seth Mantey and former Central Regional NPP Vice Chairman, Ekow Ewusi, pending further investigation.
At a press conference in Accra on Monday, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) reacting to the AG’s advice, insisted that there is “smoking gun evidence” that implicates Mantey and others, including Ekow Ewusi and John Ofori Atta, a former Central Regional Security Coordinator, in the sale of at least 27 excavators seized from illegal miners.
But narrating his side of the story, Mr Mantey said the issues started in October 2019 when he was invited to Professor Frimpong-Boateng’s office.
He claimed he[Frimpong-Boateng] asked him to sign a document that had been written, but he refused and later asked him to print out his bank statement.
“I am speaking because there has been an initial press conference by the NDC relating to the issues. The statement that the NDC talked about in their press conference is fake. I have not written any statement, nor have I signed that statement. In the purported statement, there are some contacts on the statement that are not mine,” he said.
“I have never said anywhere that I have been an errand boy for some of the individuals mentioned in the statement. Those who wrote the statement have even apologized to me. This is not the statement I wrote after I was invited by the police. I don’t work for Prof. Frimpong-Boateng so that allegation shouldn’t be taken seriously” Mr. Mantey added.
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