A government communicator says the 37-page document put together by Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng on illegal mining has insufficient evidence to trigger President Akufo-Addo’s action.

Kofi Tonto claims reports of such kind must be subjected to rigorous scrutiny by an appointed person or a body to ensure their ingenuity.

“When we talk about a ministerial report or inter-ministerial committee report, there is a standard, is an account by an appointed person or appointed entity that is thoroughly investigated,” he argued on Metro TVs Good Morning Ghana on Friday, 28th April 2023.

Aside from the report which he considers unsubstantiated, Mr. Tonto also asserts that the report rather appeared to be a clap back on accusations from some persons to the former minister.

“I have taken the time to peruse the document, I’ve read relevant parts and I continue to read it to see if there are sections that are missing because there are some parts that are very important, for my understanding. So, I have taken the time to peruse it and one thing stands out to me, it seems Prof. Frimpong Boateng felt that some people were sabotaging his efforts as the chairman of the committee and that he wanted to tell the president that I didn’t fail, it was people who rather sabotaged my efforts,” he asserted.

The former Head of Public Affairs at the Ghana Embassy in the United States also suggested that evidence recorded in the report was out of place, describing the report as opinionated.

“Unfortunately, when he proceeded to provide evidence of such sabotage, you can clearly see from the write-up that those, the information that he provided was not evidential in value. They were at best his opinion on what he deemed was the case. In many instances, they were hearsay,” Kofi Tonto said.

Mr. Tonto further tagged the report as baseless and raised a trend of inconsistencies which makes it unqualified to be called a report since most instances cited in the report by the former minister were on the heels of what some third parties had told him, he referenced a sabotage claim by the Information Minister.

“He wrote in the report, for example, he talks about Kojo Oppong Nkrumah sabotaging him, then he cites what Kojo did to sabotage him. He said that there was a time Kojo assembled media men on both sides, NDC and NPP to Dodowa, to go and plot and sabotage his work as the chairman of the inter-ministerial committee”

“Now, in the same write-up, he says that he was not there, he doesn’t have evidence, and it was his friend who is a media person whose friend. So, his friend’s friend called and told his friend that Kojo has assembled people to come and sabotage you,” he said.

By Leonora Enyonam Annoh | Metrotvonline.com | Ghana