Mr Oppong Nkrumah was accused of gathering media to write unfavourable stories regarding Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s work as Chairman of the IMCIM.

However, in an interview with Citi News, Mr Jinapor stated that Mr Oppong Nkrumah is clean.

“I know the Information Minister to be a gentleman of honour, I will never in my wildest of imagination come to the suspicion that the Information Minister will engage in such an act. He is a fine and decent gentleman who does his business with a lot of integrity and candour.”

The galamsey report made several allegations against some government and political party officials who allegedly made various attempts to thwart his efforts in clamping down on illegal mining in the country.

Particularly, the report alleged that Mr Oppong Nkrumah assembled a group of NPP and NDC journalists on February 8, 2020, in Dodowa to discuss a strategy to bring him (Prof. Frimpong-Boateng) down, an event that occasioned negative media reports about his fight against illegal mining.

The report also claimed that Mr Oppong Nkrumah’s briefs to Cabinet on the missing excavators’ saga were deliberate and sinister acts targeted at him and his fight against galamsey.

However, Oppong Nkrumah denied engaging in any scheme or practice that seek to hurt others, as it goes against his principles and upbringing questioning the feasibility and prudence of a scenario of getting both NPP and NDC affiliated journalists to work against a colleague minister.

In a rebuttal, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng in a statement said he had a piece of fatherly advice to the Information Minister.

“My advice is, always remember that political power is both short-lived and effervescent. In about 2
years’ time you may no longer be in government, and you may experience the real world as former high-profile political power holders do. I will urge you to do your work diligently and avoid the coded and evil
tactics Mr. Paul Adom-Otchere boastfully and unashamedly told the world on ‘Good Evening Ghana’ that
you employ to deal with your real and perceived enemies.”

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According to them, the mining allegation by Prof Frimpong-Boateng cannot be substantiated.

Prof Frimpong-Boateng’s report on illegal mining states that a team had to be dispatched with excavators to restore the vegetation when he learned that the President’s garden had been invaded by illegal miners.

JoyNews’ Presidential Affairs correspondent, Elton Brobbey on Thursday visited the President’s house at Kyebi and interacted with caretakers of the place.

According to one of the caretakers, he has been on the job for seven years and there has never been any illegal mining activity at the compound.

“Not at all. Security is here 24/7 so how can security be here? And then we allow people to come in that we are coming to do galamsey. What is the purpose of the security being in the house?” he quizzed.

He further questioned how the excavators can be moved into the premises due to the size of the gate.

Security agents stationed at the premises, according to Elton Brobbey, noted that since President Akufo-Addo’s inauguration in 2017, there have always been police, military, and immigration officials on the premises at all times, making it difficult for anyone to gain access without clearance.

As a result, he asserted that the claim that illegal mining took place in the garden is untrue.

When asked how they felt about the news of the President’s residence being turned into a galamsey site, the caretaker expressed his surprise.

He described the report as “serious propaganda.”

“I wonder why people with high positions can bring themselves so low to that extent of telling lies…I don’t see the point because there is a house here with trees in it up to this point, and I’m not sure how we were able to dig the gold, remove the trees, and replace them. So the trees speak for us, and I don’t believe we need to. The trees and the environment speak for themselves,” he added.

Also, in interaction with some members of the party, they also maintained that the garden was not used for galamsey.

Other members also expressed their disappointment over the report while calling on Prof Frimpong-Boateng to review his report or back his claims with evidence.

They also want him to retract and apologise. This, according to them, is because they find it insulting that the President, who has promised to address the issue of illegal mining, would rather allow his compound to be used for same.

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Mr Otchere-Darko told Citi TV/Citi FM’s Vivian Kai Lokko in an exclusive interview that the former Minister’s accusations are a wrongful twist of facts for reasons best known to him.

Mr Otchere-Darko explained that the only time he engaged the ex-minister was when a client of his law firm had issues with officers of the government’s GalamSTOP operation.

He explained that Heritage Imperial Limited was accused of prospecting for gold and had its equipment seized which made him intervene because the company had all the relevant permits to do what they were doing.

“Heritage had a mining exploration permit issued in July 2019, a forest entry permit issued in November 2018, and also an EPA permit yet the soldiers went and seized the equipment of Heritage and so I called the soldiers and was told that it was the Minister who had sanctioned them and so I asked the Minister what the issue was with the equipment seizures and the Minister said they were prospecting and not exploring and that was the conversation that we had.

“My intervention was to understand why a legitimate company with all the requisite permits was stopped from doing their work and that is what lawyers do.”

Mr Otchere-Darko added that it is unfortunate Professor Frimpong-Boateng had to twist the interaction he had with him to mean interference in the IMCIM’s work.

Prof. Frimpong-Boateng names govt officials engaged in ‘galamsey’

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• Prof. Frimpong-Boateng names govt officials engaged in ‘galamsey’