Kofi Tonto, a member of the communications team of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), has criticized Professor Frimpong-Boateng's recent report on illegal mining, saying that it lacks evidential value.

Speaking in a panel discussion on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana, Kofi Tonto stated that ministerial reports or inter-ministerial committee reports have a standard, which is an account thoroughly investigated by an appointed person or entity.

He pointed out that although Professor Frimpong-Boateng alleged that some people were sabotaging his effort, the evidence provided was not evidential in value, but rather hearsay and opinions.

“Now on the issue of the report, when we talk about a ministerial report or inter-ministerial committee report, there is a standard, which is an account by an appointed person or appointed entity, that is thoroughly investigated….one thing stands out to me, that it seems professor Frimpong Boateng felt that some people wanted to sabotage him so he wanted to tell the president that, I didn’t fail but it was people who were rather sabotaging my effort.

“Unfortunately, when he proceeded to provide evidence of such sabotage, you can clearly see from the write-up that, the information he provided was not evidential in value. They were his opinions, and what he deemed was the case, in many instances, they were hearsay,” he said.

Tonto argued that he (professor Frimpong-Boateng) was expecting President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to act on the said report but the president cannot act on mere hearsay or opinions, but only on the evidence of value.

He further stressed that the report failed to meet a ministerial standard document.

“…What the president can work with is something of evidential value, my brother did you really expect the president to call Kojo Oppong Nkrumah and say that somebody said to somebody that they heard something, so Kojo what do you have to say? Do you really expect your president…is that how you expect your president to behave?

“And that is why I first told you that a ministerial document has a standard, but that standard was not met. It is not about your emotions, it is not about your feelings, it is about accurate capture of what has happened,” he added.

A report authored by Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, the former Chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) in 2021, was leaked weeks ago, 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, and Charles Owusu among others. While they have denied any wrongdoing, some alleged that Frimpong-Boateng was equally at fault.



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AM/SARA