Former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng has hit back at lawyer Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko over the leaked report of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM).
In the report, Prof Frimpong-Boateng, who chaired the Committee, cited Mr Asare-Darko for calling him on phone to defend a mining company destroying Ghana’s vegetation.
He said that saddened him most.
“What saddened me most was when Mr Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko called to defend a company that was actively destroying the environment, especially the forests and River Offin in the Apaprama and Kobro Forests.”
But the known New Patriotic Party (NPP) lawyer replied the respected heart surgeon in an interview with Accra-based Citi TV, accusing him of having a weak understanding of his position.
Mr Otchere-Darko also said Prof Frimpong-Boateng reporting him to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was a non-starter because the President is a lawyer and would not just act on such verbal complaint.
In a reply to this, Prof Frimpong-Boateng pointed out that Mr Otchere-Darko only exhibited industrial-scale ignorance about mining laws and regulations.
“After listening to the words of Mr Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, I became sad for Ghana,” the cardio surgeon wrote.
“I wondered what happened to us to get to this state, where a person who is supposed to be a lawyer to a mining company exhibited such industrial-scale ignorance about mining laws and regulations.”
Prof Frimpong-Boateng reminded the renowned lawyer and entrepreneur that his client had a strong history of acting with impunity.
“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 pictures and videos from Diaso forest and Apaprama.”
Prof Frimpong-Boateng pointed out that per the destruction caused by Mr Otchere-Darko’s client they should have been prosecuted and probably jailed by now.
