Minister of Information Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has responded to allegations levelled against him and captured in the report of Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng on the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM).
Prof Frimpong-Boateng had cited Mr Oppong Nkrumah for gathering a group of journalists at the Forest Hotel in Dodowa to begin a mudslinging campaign against the respected heart surgeon while he chaired the Committee.
According to Prof Frimpong-Boateng, who was also Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, the meeting of journalists from New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) media houses was to “discuss a strategy to bring me Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng down”.
He complained Mr Oppong Nkrumah, who is also Member of Parliament for Ofoase-Ayirebi, never called him about the missing excavators though he was part of the Inter-Ministerial Committee.
“If Kojo Oppong Nkrumah and the likes of him have presidential ambitions, they should pursue it on merit and not attempt to destroy a hard working patriot, whose only ambition is work to achieve a Ghana Beyond Aid,” the old professor had concluded in the report dated Friday, March 19, 2021.
But in his reply on Friday, April 21, Mr Oppong Nkrumah wondered: “What would I, a much younger man, seek to gain from bringing down a person as well respected as Prof Boateng?
“I had no interests in his profession, his politics or his portfolios. I have absolutely nothing to gain from sullying his reputation.”
He advised Prof Frimpong-Boateng to have interrogated that call from his journalist friend about the supposed ‘secret’ meeting at Dodowa before drawing his conclusions.
Mr Oppong Nkrumah expressed belief that in the coming months and years, Prof Frimpong-Boateng will reflect deeply on his own actions and comments which have led to his challenges.
“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.”
He says inasmuch as he is utterly disappointed, he forgives the former Cabinet Minister.
“He should kindly leave me out of his personal fights,” the Information Minister stressed.
