Seth Mantey, a reporter who works with Accra-based Peace FM has denied authoring a viral police statement which the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is capitalising on to advance its course.
Sammy Gyamfi, the National Communications Officer of the NDC during the party’s ‘Moment of Truth’ series Monday, October, 16, 2023, mentioned that Seth Mantey, had authored a statement to the police which is enough evidence to prosecute some persons mentioned in the galamsey report from Prof. Frimpong-Boateng.
A 21-page report presented to the Chief of Staff, Akosua Osei Frema Opare, by the Chairman of the dissolved Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, mentioned that, one Seth Mantey had testified to receiving monies from persons involved in galamsey in his account, to members of the Committee to release their seized excavators to them.
The said report was used by the NDC in their Moment of Truth Monday to advance their course that an advice given by the Attorney General to the government that the report lacked the requisite evidence to prosecute persons implicated in the report was a mere cover-up by the A-G.
“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 Seth Mantey further stated that all the monies paid into his bank account were withdrawn by him and paid to the Central Regional Security Coordinator, John Ofori Atta who gave Ekow Ewusi his share.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 addressing the media Tuesday, October 17, 2023, Seth Mantey said he was asked to sign a written document in the Professor’s office but refused.
“I was invited to Professor Frimpong-Boateng’s office on October 16, 2019 which was a Wednesday 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.
He has asked Sammy Gyamfi to go to the police if he wants to know what he actually stated in his statement.
“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 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 said in a press statement Tuesday, October 17, 2023.
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