A leading member of the governing New Patriotic Party, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko has locked horns with former Minister for Environment, Science Technology and Innovation, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng over the latter latest report on illegal mining submitted to the Chief of Staff.
The report which fingered some officials of government for engaging in galamsey hence thwarting the government’s effort has been met with mixed reactions from the public.
Portions of the report disclosed that Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, cousin to the president was in the business of interfering in the work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) and hence was reported to the President who made a promise to probe the matter.
But reacting to the accusation in an interview with Accra-based Citi News, Mr. Otchere Darko took a swipe at former Minister for Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng who doubled as the chair of the IMCIM.
Exonerating himself from the accusations, Mr. Otchere Darko said he cannot fathom why the then Minister failed to deal with him if he indeed was engaging in illegality at the time.
“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,” private legal practitioner insisted.
He continued that, “Let the [former] Minister come and say that when I called him, I instructed him to do what was not right, let him 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,” Mr. Otchere Darko added.
