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Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng has detailed what led to the defeat of some incumbent Members of Parliament (MPs) of the New Patriotic Party in the 2020 primaries.
About 40 MPs, some chairing committees in Parliament, lost the primaries much to the surprise of Ghanaians.
A number of factors was given for the outcome of the elections.
The report of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) has pointed to the involvement of some of these MPs in small-scale mining as one of the causes of the mass defeat by the MPs.
A report written by Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng cites how Manso Nkwanta MP failed to influence delegates despite alleged attempts to bribe them because of his involvement in galamsey.
“This is a Member of Parliament for the Manso Nkwanta Constituency in the Ashanti Region and at the same time member of the board of the Minerals Commission.
“He used his position as a member of the Minerals Commission to acquire several dozens of large scale concessions in his district, ostensibly for community mining purposes.
“He ended 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 that 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.”
‘Bogus’
But speaking on TV3‘s Ghana Tonight on Thursday, April 20, the former MP described as “unfortunate” and “totally untrue” the report issued by the good old professor.
“I do not own a single concession let alone dozens,” he dismissed.
“When you say dozens you are talking about multiples of 12; either 12, 24 or 144. I do not even have one concession.
“In any case, if he claims that I have concessions, you cannot have a concession without a document. . .if he claims that, he should produce the number of concessions that he feels that I own in my name before we move to the next level.”
He described the entire report as “bogus”, serving notice to Prof Frimpong-Boateng that if does not apologise, he (Mr Quarm) will advise himself.
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