Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko has averred that the defamatory comments for which he is suing former environment minister Prof. Frimpong Boateng cast him in a bad light in the eyes of right-thinking members of the public.

On page 9 of his suit, sighted by GhanaWeb, Gabby quoted the said comments made on April 19 by Frimpong-Boateng in response to his (Gabby) initial reply to alleged complicity in protecting the interests of persons engaged in illegal small-scale mining (galamsey).

Gabby outlined six points relative to point 28 of his suit, stating that the former minister’s riposte to him ordinarily bore the meanings that:

a. That Plaintiff is a saboteur

b. That Plaintiff is disloyal

c. That Plaintiff is a law onto himself

d. That Plaintiff is an obstruction to the fight against Galamsey

e. That Plaintiff acts with impunity

f. That Plaintiff obstructs justice

The suit continued: “By reasoning of the foregoing Plaintiff has been greatly injured in his credit, character and reputation, and has been brough into public scandal, ridicule, distress and embarrassment and has thereby suffered damage.”

It is on the basis of the above that he is seeking aggravated and or exemplary damages.

Background:

Nearly a week ago, a report authored by Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, the former Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) in 2021, was released containing the names of NPP officials who are allegedly hindering the fight against illegal mining.

Some of the known names mentioned in the report include the Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, Gabby Otchere-Darko, Laud Commey, Joseph Quam, among others. While they have denied any wrongdoing, some alleged that Frimpong-Boateng was equally at fault.

Prof Frimpong-Boateng in his 36-paged report wrote that Gabby pestered him when the IMCIM was about dislodging the Imperial Heritage.

His report recalled how Gabby Otchere-Darko, a cousin of the president and an influential member of the ruling NPP, called him on phone to question his decision to order for the dislodgment of equipment of a Mining Company Imperial Heritage which Prof. Frimpong Boateng argues was mining illegally with a prospecting license in forest reserves.

“We were ready to dislodge Imperial Heritage from Kobro Forest when Mr. Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko called to inform me that he was the lawyer for Heritage Imperial Limited, a company that was destroying the Kobro and Apaprama Forest Reserves and in the process had also polluted and diverted the course of the River Offin, as can be seen in the satellite images below. I informed the President about the behaviour of Mr. Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko and he promised to deal with it.”

Gabby in turn averred that the former minister had twisted the job of a lawyer to mean interference.

Read the full suit below:



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SARA