The Convener of the Media Coalition Against Galamsey (MCAG), Dr. Kenneth Ashigbey, has criticized government communicators for denigrating the damning galamsey report by a former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.
The renowned heart surgeon, in a 37-page document, accused government officials of engaging in galamsey or interfering in his work.
Professor Frimpong-Boateng was arrested by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) last month to answer questions about suspected corruption and corruption-related offenses in respect of the activities and expenditure of the dissolved Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM).
He insisted that he had done nothing wrong to warrant such action from the OSP.
The presidency described the report as hearsay. The presidency also said that the document was not an official report that had been presented to Cabinet, as it had been submitted in an informal way.
Supporting this analogy, the Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) said that the report did not follow the basic principles of report writing.
“The so-called report is not a report in the traditional sense. It is more of a narrative,” he said on the Big Issue on Citi TV.
However, responding to this, Dr. Ashigbey, who was a co-panelist on Citi TV’s political show, hosted by Selorm Adonoo, said, “I respectfully disagree with my brother Richard Ahiagbah, and I don’t think that people from the government should be calling that report so-called, trying to denigrate it. You can’t say that. You might decide the way to write your report, I might decide the way to write my report. There is a report that has been given.”
He believes that the OSP should have granted the former Chairman of the IMCIM self-recognizance bail based on his status in the country.
Dr. Ashigbey described the timing of the arrest of Professor Frimpong-Boateng as wrong.
“When I heard of the arrest, my first thought was that the timing and the coincidence were very disturbing. We couldn’t grant him self-recognizance bail, but then we had to get somebody to bail him? Then you go to the house of the person who bailed him to do an inspection. It was almost as if an ordinary being like Ken Ashigbey had been arrested. At least you would have supposed that we would have given him the benefit of the doubt by his stature and all of that. If we needed him to provide more evidence, he would have showed up. If the OSP says that is their standard operating procedures, we need to be careful of the nuances that are involved in this,” he stated.