PRINPAG Comes To The Defence Of Oppong Nkrumah After Been Mentioned In Frimpong Boateng's Galamsey Expose
PRINPAG President Edwin Arthur
Andrew Edwin Arthur, the President of the Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG), has defended the Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, in response to allegations made against him by Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, the former Minister for Science, Environment, Technology, and Innovation.
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, who was also the Chairman of the now-disbanded Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (ICIM), alleged in a 37-page report to the Chief of Staff that Minister Oppong Nkrumah had organized a secret meeting to plot against the fight against illegal mining.
In an interview with Accra-based Adom FM on Thursday, April 28, 2023, Mr. Arthur clarified that the event in question was a training program on financial reporting organized by PRINPAG and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and had nothing to do with any malice towards Prof. Frimpong-Boateng.
"As President of PRINPAG, I invited the Minister of Information to attend our training program at the Forest Hotel in Dodowa as the Guest of Honor." Therefore, we submitted a proposal to the Bank of Ghana (BoG) requesting assistance in training our members in financial reporting.
"Additionally, I personally invited the Honorable Kojo Oppong Nkrumah to deliver the keynote address at our event, along with the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) President at the time, Mr. Affail Monney. Therefore, I was taken aback by Professor Frimpong-Boateng's claim that the group was conspiring against the struggle against illegal mining. "That is obviously false," he stated.
Mr. Arthur also expressed disappointment in Prof. Frimpong-Boateng's false claims, pointing out that neither his name nor the issue of illicit mining were mentioned during the event.
Several allegations were also made against government and political party officials, who allegedly attempted to thwart the former minister's efforts to crack down on illicit mining in the country.
Since then, however, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah has denied the allegation as fraudulent and a fabrication intended to incite public hostility against him. He stated that it is against his principles and upbringing to harm others, and he questioned the feasibility and wisdom of a scenario in which journalists affiliated with the NPP and NDC labor against a colleague minister.