The President of the Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG), Andrew Edwin Arthur, has come out in defence of the Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, in the wake of allegations levelled against him by former Minister for Science, Environment, Technology and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.
The allegations surfaced in a 37-page report on illegal mining to the Chief of Staff, where Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, who was also the Chairman of the now-dissolved Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (ICIM) claimed that Minister Oppong Nkrumah had orchestrated a clandestine 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 organized by PRINPAG in collaboration with the Bank of Ghana (BoG) on financial reporting and had no connection to any malicious intent towards Prof. Frimpong-Boateng.
“As President of PRINPAG, I threw an invitation to the Minister for Information to be the Guest of Honor for our training program at the Forest Hotel in Dodowa. So, we wrote a proposal to the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to assist us train our members in financial reporting.
“On top of it, I personally wrote the letter inviting the Honorable Kojo Oppong Nkrumah to deliver a keynote address as part of our event together with the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) President at the time, Mr. Affail Monney. So, I was taken aback by Professor Frimpong-Boateng’s allegation that it was gathering to scheme against the fight against illegal mining. That is clearly untrue,” he said.
Mr. Arthur also expressed disappointment at the false claims made by Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, pointing out that neither Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s name nor the issue of illegal mining was mentioned during the event.
The report also made several allegations against some government and political party officials who allegedly made various attempts to thwart the former Minister’s efforts in clamping down on illegal mining in the country.
However, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah has since denied the allegation as false and a fabricated account to court public disaffection against his person. He said it goes against his principles and upbringing to hurt others questioning the feasibility and prudence of a scenario of getting both NPP and NDC affiliated journalists to work against a colleague Minister.
