Former Manso Nkwanta Member of Parliament Joseph Albert Qualm has sued former Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) Chairman Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng for defamation.
Mr. Qualm is demanding GH2.5 million in damages from the former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, as well as a restraining order barring Prof. Frimpong-Boateng from commenting on the explosive galamsey report he prepared.
In the leaked study, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng claimed, among other things, that the former MP utilized his position as a board member on the Minerals Commission to purchase dozens of mining concessions.
Professor Fimpong-Boateng also alleged in the report that Mr. Qualms would usually end “up selling these concessions to private individuals, including party members for two hundred thousand Cedis per concession. This infuriated the party in the constituency so during the 2020 primaries to select a candidate the electorate voted against Hon. Quarm, the sitting MP, who was more resourced than other candidates. Although there were allegations that he “camped” delegates and attempted to bribe them, he lost to a lesser known individual who did not have any financial muscle.”.
Mr. Qualm is requesting that the court rule “that the Defendant’s averments in his report which alleged underhanded sales of mining concessions to the Plaintiff are capable of a defamatory meaning and are actually defamatory of the Plaintiff.”
He is also requesting a “injunction restraining the Defendant, his servants, or agents, or otherwise, from further publishing or causing to be published any portion of the Defendant’s report so long as they relate to the allegations made against the Plaintiff; and to further restrain the Defendant from publishing or repeating the said or similar words defamatory of the Plaintiff through media interviews and other such.”
Several people named in the article have filed lawsuits against the former IMCIM chairman.
