The former Environment Minister has disclosed that through the intervention of the cousin of President Akufo-Addo, some arrested Chinese engaged in illegal mining in the Ashanti Region were released.

Prof Frimpong Boateng said the many soldiers who were providing security service to your Gabby Asare Otchere Darko’s client’s company attacked the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) task force team.

According to him, while at it, they damaged the vehicle carrying journalists who were covering the IMCIM operations.

“The unfortunate scenes were captured on camera and shown on Joy News,” he said in a press release on Monday, April 24.

In a 36-page document written by Prof. Boateng and addressed to the President, the chief of staff, and the police, Mr Otchere-Darko and other government officials were fingered to have thwarted the then minister’s attempt to fight the galamsey menace.

Denying the accusation, Mr Otchere-Darko stated that he had not asked the minister to engage in any illegality or condone same.

According to the NPP stalwart, he only called the renowned medical doctor to seek information on his client – a company that had the permits to mine in the country.He added that Prof Frimpong Boateng deliberately twisted his mediation to cause public disaffection for him.

But the celebrated surgeon takes an exception to Mr Otchere-Darko’s comment.

“Mr Otchere Darko, I don’t think you have retrograde amnesia, but I still want to refresh your memory about the destruction of the environment that had been perpetrated by your client over the years with the accompanying videos and pictures from Diaso forest and Apaprama.

“Even if your clients had all licences and permits, with the destruction that they caused, not only should they have been stopped from operating a mining company indefinitely, but they should also have been prosecuted, probably jailed, made to reclaim the land, vegetate it and clean the water bodies,” Prof Boateng said.

He added, “Finally, the [former] Minister, whom Mr Gabby Otchere Darko thinks had a weak understanding of his position, has done more for this country and the world than Mr. Otchere Darko would ever dream of in a million years.”