Galamsey: Deal with Your Issues - Gabby Replies Prof. Frimpong Boateng Over IMCIM Report
Mr Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, a lawyer and 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 submitted to President Akufo-Addo.
Frimpong-Boateng in his 36-paged report wrote that, “We were ready to dislodge Imperial Heritage from Kobro Forest when Mr. Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko called to inform me that he was the lawyer for Heritage Imperial Limited, a company that was destroying the Kobro and Apaprama Forest Reserves and in the process had also polluted and diverted the course of the River Offin, as can be seen in the satellite images below. I informed the President about the behaviour of Mr. Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko and he promised to deal with it.”
In an interview with Citi FM, Mr Otchere-Darko, denied interfering with the work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM).
"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 further dared the former Minister to "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,” he stated.
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