Seth Mantey, the journalist at the centre of the Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) report presented to the Chief of Staff in March 2021 has denied the attributions being made to him as far as the report is concerned.
The journalist in a press conference Tuesday, October 17, 2023, as reported by Onua News’ Nana Yaw Asare said the purported statement making rounds in his name is alien to him since he has not authored anything to the Chairman of the dissolved IMCIM.
According to him, when he was invited to the Professor’s office some years ago, he was asked to sign a written statement which he refused.
He has vehemently denied knowledge of the 27 excavators which the said report indicates he mediated the collection of monies from the owners to persons on the defunct committee including Ekow Horace Ewusi, a staunch member of the New Patriotic Party.
“I was invited to Professor Frimpong-Boateng’s office on October 16, 2019 and asked to sign a paper in front of them and I refused. So, they asked me to get them a bank statement. This is because Sammy Gyamfi alluded to a statement in the public domain purported to be signed by me indicating the release of 27 excavators to their owners.
“That statement on the A4 sheet with John Ofori Attah’s contact was not authored by me. I don’t know anything about it. They wanted to write Ekow Ewusi’s contact on it too. I have never said anywhere that I collected any monies for Commando,” he indicated.
His presser comes on the back of a ‘Moment of Truth’ series by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Monday, October 16, 2023, where National Communications Officer of the party, Sammy Gyamfi mentioned that Seth Mantey’s account is evidence enough to get persons implicated in the report prosecuted.
“The advice of the Attorney-General recounts how Prof. Frimpong Boateng furnished the Police with the statement of one Seth Mantey, a journalist previously with Accra-based Peace FM in which the journalist formally confessed that he was the errand boy of one John Ofori Atta, Central Regional Security Coordinator, and a member of GalamStop, and that, in the course of the operation of GalamStop, he became a contact boy for miners whose excavators were seized by the task force.
“In his statement to the Police, Seth Mantey confessed that miners were directed by John Ofori Atta to pay between GHS50,000 and GHS55,000 into his bank account at NIB to influence the anti-galamsey taskforce to release the seized excavators. Seth Mantey further stated that all the monies paid into his bank account were withdrawn by him and paid to the Central Regional Security Coordinator, John Ofori Atta who gave Ekow Ewusi his share.
“According to Seth Mantey, about twenty-seven (27) of the seized excavators were released to these miners,” Sammy Gyamfi said in his statement Monday.
But in his reaction to the allegations, Seth Mantey has denied even knowing Ekow Ewusi.
“I don’t even know Ekow Ewusi and I’m not part of the Inter-ministerial committee. The five persons who authored the thing have apologized to me in the presence of an elderly woman whose name I cant mention here. They said they made a mistake and asked for my forgiveness. I want Sammy Gyamfi to know that I have not authored any such statement to neither the police nor the Special Prosecutor. He is a lawyer and if he wants the statement that I wrote, he should go to the Police Service and ask because I know nothing about this statement. Professor Frimpong-Boateng is not a police officer and I have not written anything to him,” he indicated.
READ ALSO: [FULL TEXT] A-G’s advice on Frimpong-Boateng’s ‘galamsey’ report a cover-up – NDC
