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Seasoned Journalist, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. has mounted defence for Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, a lawyer and a prominent member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), regarding the mention of his name in Professor Frimpong Boateng's report indicting some officials of the governing party engaging in illegal mining (galamsey).

Frimpong-Boateng in his report said; “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.”

But to Kwesi Pratt, there is nothing wrong with Mr. Gabby Otchere-Darko being a Counsel for Heritage Imperial Limited which the report has accused of destroying forest reserves as a result of their galamsey activities.

Speaking to host Nana Yaw Kesseh on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" show, Mr. Pratt asked; "Is it againt the law for someone to be a lawyer for a person engaged in galamsey?"

Further backing Mr. Otchere-Darko, he stressed "in the laws of Ghana, even a criminal is entitled to a lawyer . . . if that is it then what is the big deal".

Gabby replies Prof Frimpong Boateng

Gabby Otchere-Darko has 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 in an interview with Citi FM.

He 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 added.