Oppong Nkrumah denies orchestrating plan to destroy Prof. Frimpong-Boateng

The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has denied allegations made in a 37-page report on illegal mining, which accuses him of being behind a plan to destroy former Minister for Science, Environment, Technology and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.

The report, written by Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, claims that Mr Oppong Nkrumah organised a secret meeting of journalists from both the NPP and NDC on 8th February 2020 in Dodowa to discuss a strategy to bring him down, which led to subsequent negative media reports about him.

However, Mr Oppong Nkrumah has described the claims as completely false, stating that he only attended a PRINPAG (Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana)  event, jointly organised with the Bank of Ghana on financial reporting, and never held any meeting to oust anybody from the government. 

"On February 9, 2020, I was invited to Dodowa as a guest of Honour to a PRINPAG (Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana) event, jointly organized with the Bank of Ghana on financial reporting. This event was not a secret. It was widely promoted on media platforms and my personal social media handles as well. It was a workshop to train journalists on how to understand and deepen their reportage on financial matters in Ghana. The event had nothing to do with the fight against galamsey, not even remotely," Mr Oppong Nkrumah said in a statement. 

"As is customary with such events, I was received by organizers and protocol officers openly at the arrival ceremony, ushered into the event hall openly, invited to deliver my remarks openly and escorted for the group photograph afterwards openly. My exit from the event and the reportage of my remarks were also done openly. Neither the anti-galamsey fight nor Prof Boateng was matters for consideration at this BOG and PRINPAG event.

"How the former Minister morphs this event into a secret strategy conclave, with his downfall as the objective is completely beyond my imagination. The participants from the Bank of Ghana and PRINPAG will be shocked and saddened to read this claim of such an otherwise highly-held man".

Mr Oppong Nkrumah also pointed out that Prof. Frimpong-Boateng himself wrote to the Ghana Police Service in January 2020 reporting the loss of some excavators and called for an investigation, and that it was the former minister's own reports, interviews, and videos that generated media challenges about the excavators. 

The Information Minister expressed disappointment at the false claims made by Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, whom he had previously held in high esteem, and forgave him, but asked that he leave him out of his personal fights.