Former Environment Minister is baffled by how a key New Patriotic Party (NPP) member Gabby Otchere-Darko perceives the fight against illegal mining in the country.
The country has seen an uproar since the ‘galamsey’ report came public pointing to top officials and their involvement in the canker.
The document cited the NPP stalwart to have interfered in a taskforce’s work under the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) chaired by Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.
In the report to the Presidency, Prof Frimpong-Boateng accused Mr Otchere-Darko of influencing the release of some Chinese miners belonging to a mining company.
The report said Mr Otchere-Darko was well aware of the destruction his clients were engaged in and yet chose to use his privileged position to protect them and their destructive activities.
But the NPP member says the former Minister misconstrued his intervention in the said situation.
Barely 24 hours after the response, Prof Frimpong-Boateng is back with a rebuttal in which he furnishes the public with images of the said destruction caused by Gabby’s said clients at the time.
The former Minister says he is saddened by Gabby’s appreciation of the matters in relation to ‘galamsey’ explaining that “I wondered what happened to us to get to this state, where a person who is supposed to be the lawyer of a mining company exhibited such industrial scale ignorance about mining laws and regulations.
“Going over the videos and pictures depicting the monumental environmental degradation in the areas of operation of Mr. Gabby Otchere Darko’s clients, and seeing his ignorance, I am no longer surprised that Mr. Gabby Otchere Darko has such a pixelated view of the illegal mining landscape in Ghana.”
On the claim that Prof Frimpong Boateng deliberately twisted his mediation to cause public disaffection for him, the renowned surgeon took strong exception.
Mr Otchere Darko, I don’t think you have retrograde amnesia, but I still want to refresh your memory about the destruction of the environment that had been perpetrated by your client over the years with the accompanying videos and pictures from Diaso forest and Apaprama.
“Even if your clients had all licences and permits, with the destruction that they caused, not only should they have been stopped from operating a mining company indefinitely, but they should also have been prosecuted, probably jailed, made to reclaim the land, vegetate it and clean the water bodies,” Prof Boateng said.
He added, “Finally, the [former] Minister, whom Mr Gabby Otchere Darko thinks had a weak understanding of his position, has done more for this country and the world than Mr. Otchere Darko would ever dream of in a million years.”
