A leading member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, has dragged former Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng to court over galamsey allegations leveled against him.

Prof. Frimpong-Boateng in the galamsey report accused Mr. Otchere-Darko of interfering in the work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) which he (Prof. Frimpong-Boateng) chaired.

But in a legal suit filed at the High Court, Mr. Otchere-Darko is demanding a sum of GH¢10,000,000 from the former minister in damages.

Mr. Otchere-Darko also demands an apology and retraction from Prof. Frimpong-Boateng.

“An apology for and retraction of the words complained of and the particularized supra. A perpetual injunction restraining the defendant whether by himself, his servants, agents or assigns from repeating similar or other defamatory words against the plaintiff,” Mr. Otchere-Darko demanded as part of his reliefs.

Contention of Plaintiff

Lawyers for Otchere-Darko, in their statement of claim dated 28 April 2023, and signed by Bright Okyere-Adjekum, contend that the “defendant from his report sought to sensationalise the telephone conversation with the Plaintiff as Plaintiff never sought to direct or instruct defendant on his dealings with Heritage”.

“Defendant placed a slant on his telephone conversation with the plaintiff only to justify his self-acclaimed position that he was the last man standing in the fight against galamsey and thereby enhance his reputation at plaintiff’s expense.

“Defendant’s false statements about the plaintiff, which have gone viral, have generated and continue to feed several insults against plaintiff, especially on the internet, including plaintiff being derisively called galamsey lawyer.”

“Plaintiff’s conversation with defendant did not involve any illegal Chinese miners. Defendant is deliberately and maliciously confusing issues, events and dates” the statement of claim read.

“By the records available to plaintiff, the only Chinese nationals with work permits engaged by Heritage as its subcontractors who were arrested were discharged by a court of competent jurisdiction in July 2019. This was even before Heritage engaged ALA as its lawyers and plaintiff had nothing to do with that at all.

“Notwithstanding the fact that the plaintiff has made it clear that the allegations made against him by the Defendant are false, the defendant has not offered the plaintiff any apology or retraction.”

“Instead, he has made more damning false allegations against plaintiff. It is to be inferred that defendant has cynically failed to do so because he is indifferent to the truth, deliberate about causing reputational damage to Plaintiff, has a total disregard for plaintiff’s reputation and only seeks to court huge publicity at Plaintiff’s expense.

“Plaintiff contends that unless restrained by the court, defendant will continue to publish or cause to be published same or similar defamatory words concerning the plaintiff” Otchere-Darko’s lawyers said in their statement of claim.