Galamsey Report: Captain Koda sues Frimpong-Boateng for Gh¢5m defamation

Former Science and Environment Minister, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, is facing another defamation lawsuit from a member of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuf0-Addo's security team.

Edmund Kwadwo Koda, also known as Captain Koda, has accused Frimpong-Boateng of making defamatory statements about him in a leaked report on illegal small-scale mining, otherwise known as galamsey.

In the suit, Koda is seeking damages of five million Ghana cedis and an apology and retraction of the report’s portions that are deemed injurious to him.

The suit quoted portions of the said report before proceeding to state how injurious the claims against him were.

The suit stated that “In their natural and ordinary meaning, the words complained of meant and were understood to mean that:

a. Plaintiff is a saboteur of the President's initiatives and policies especially the President's fight directed at illegal mining,

b. Plaintiff is disloyal to the President and only pretends to have his interests at heart,

c. Plaintiff is against the current government's fight to combat illegal mining,

d. Plaintiff is an obstruction to the fight against illegal mining,

e. That Plaintiff acts with impunity without recourse to law and authority,

f. That Plaintiff obstructs the discharge of justice in general and particularly in the fight against illegal mining,

g. That Plaintiff is unpatriotic and a traitor.”

Frimpong-Boateng’s report stated that two years ago, the attention of the IMCIM's task force was drawn to a site that had been degraded, and the tailings from there were directed into the Birim River near Anyinam.

The task force impounded two excavators and deposited them at the police station in Anyinam. Frantic telephone calls were received from Koda, who asked for the excavators to be released, and informed the task force that the owner of the concession, George Kwame Aboagye, MP for Asene Akroso Manso, is his brother.

-DGN online