Former Environment Minister is baffled by how a key New Patriotic Party (NPP) member Gabby Otchere-Darko perceives the fight against illegal mining in the country.
The country has seen an uproar since the ‘galamsey’ report came public pointing to top officials and their involvement in the canker.
The document cited the NPP stalwart to have interfered in a taskforce’s work under the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) chaired by Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.
In the report to the Presidency, Prof Frimpong-Boateng accused Mr Otchere-Darko of influencing the release of some Chinese miners belonging to a mining company.
The report said Mr Otchere-Darko was well aware of the destruction his clients were engaged in and yet chose to use his privileged position to protect them and their destructive activities.
But the NPP member says the former Minister misconstrued his intervention in the said situation.
“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 videos and pictures from Diaso forest and Apaprama.
“Even if your clients had all licences and permits, with the destruction that they caused, not only should they have been stopped from operating a mining company indefinitely, but they should also have been prosecuted, probably jailed, made to reclaim the land, vegetate it and clean the water bodies,” Prof Boateng said.
He added, “Finally, the [former] Minister, whom Mr Gabby Otchere Darko thinks had a weak understanding of his position, has done more for this country and the world than Mr. Otchere Darko would ever dream of in a million years.”