Please leave me out of your fights - Oppong Nkrumah to Frimpong Boateng

Information Minister Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah has denied allegations that he orchestrated a plot to bring down former Minister for Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng over the fight against illegal mining also known as galamsey in the country.

In a statement released on Friday, April 21, 2023, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah described as false and a fabricated account to court public disaffection against his person.

“Over the years, I had nothing but great admiration for Prof Boateng’s public-spirited works and as an inspirational citizen. I feel gravely offended over the false claims he has made and the hurtful conclusions he has sought to exact about me precisely because of the great esteem in which I have held him.

“I trust that in the coming months and years, he will reflect deeply upon his own actions and comments which have led to his challenges. He should kindly leave me out of his personal fights. I am utterly disappointed, but I forgive him,” the statement said.

The statement follows allegations made by the former Minister and Chairman of the dissolved Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Prof. Boateng in a 37-page report to President Akufo-Addo, accusing Mr. Oppong Nkrumah of plotting to bring him down over the fight against illegal mining.

The report made several allegations against some government and political party officials who allegedly made various attempts to thwart his efforts in clamping down on illegal mining in the country.

Particularly, the report alleged that Mr. Oppong Nkrumah assembled a group of NPP and NDC journalists on February 8, 2020, in Dodowa to discuss a strategy to bring him (Prof. Boateng) down, an event that occasioned negative media reports about his fight against illegal mining.

The report also claimed that Mr. Oppong Nkrumah’s briefs to Cabinet on the missing excavators saga were deliberate and sinister act targeted at him and his fight against galamsey.

However, Oppong Nkrumah denied engaging in any scheme or practice that seeks to hurt others, as it goes against his principles and upbringing questioning the feasibility and prudence of a scenario of getting both NPP and NDC affiliated journalists to work against a colleague Minister.