Media hatchet job claim of Prof. Frimpong-Boateng deflated

Claims by Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng that a media hatchet job was engineered by Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah at Dodowa Forest Hotel have been called into question.

It is important to point out that a workshop organized by the Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG) and funded by Bank of Ghana (BoG) did not discuss anything about Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng.

The two-day meeting held on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 of February 2020 at Dodowa Forest Hotel was the conclusion of a series of training programmes that BoG funded for PRINPAG members and held at Kumasi, Takoradi, Tamale and Ho.

It was a workshop to train journalists on how to understand and deepen their reportage on the financial sector in Ghana.

All resource persons for the workshop were staff of BoG who took participants through operations of the Central Bank, factors that caused the banking sector issues leading to the cleanup exercise among others.

On February 9, 2020, Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah who was invited by PRINPAG as guest speaker delivered a message at the workshop.

As Editor of The Finder, a member of PRINPAG who attended the workshop, it comes as a surprise to hear Prof. Frimpong-Boateng claim that the said meeting was a media hatchet job to plot his downfall.

On page 24 of Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng’s letter to the Chief of Staff, he wrote; “On Saturday, the 8^th of February 2020, Mr Kojo Oppong  Nkrumah, the Minister for Information assembled a group of journalists from both NDC and NPP affiliated media houses at the Forest Hotel in Dodowa to discuss a strategy to bring me Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng down.

“Whilst they were there, a journalist from among the group called a friend of mine also a journalist and informed him about the plot that was being hatched.

“He further informed my friend to watch out for headlines in some newspapers in the days following the meeting,”

In response, Information Minister Oppong Nkrumah wrote “On February 9 2020, I was invited to Dodowa as a guest of Honour to a PRINPAG (Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana) event, jointly organized with the Bank of Ghana on financial reporting.

“This event was not a secret. It was widely promoted on media platforms and my personal social media handles as well.

“It was a workshop to train journalists on how to understand and deepen their reportage on financial matters in Ghana. The event had nothing to do with the fight against galamsey, not even remotely.

“As is customary with such events, I was received by organizers and protocol officers openly at the arrival ceremony, ushered into the event hall openly, invited to deliver my remarks openly and escorted for the group photograph afterwards openly.

“My exit from the event and the reportage of my remarks were also done openly.

“Neither the anti-galamsey fight nor Prof Boateng was matters for consideration at this BoG and PRINPAG event.

“How the former Minister morphs this event into a secret strategy conclave, with his downfall as the objective is completely beyond my imagination.

“The participants from the Bank of Ghana and PRINPAG will be shocked and saddened to read this claim of such an otherwise highly-held man”.

Oppong Nkrumah denies holding any meeting at Dodowa Forest Hotel on February 8.

He also asserts that the only gathering of journalists he addressed at Dodowa Forest Hotel that weekend was the PRINPAG, BoG workshop.

Prof. Frimpong-Boateng in his letter also wrote “On Monday, 10^th February 2020, the Informer Newspaper, whose editor was at that meeting, had the banner headline on its front page below.

A copy of the Informer Newspaper which Prof. Frimpong-Boateng attached in his letter had the headline “Stolen Excavators Brouhaha, Akufo-Addo sacks Frimpong Boateng”.

Andy Kankam, the editor of Informer Newspaper who Prof. Frimpong-Boateng accuses was a participant at the PRINPAG-BoG workshop held at Dodowa Forest Hotel on February 8 and 9, 2020.

This also implies that Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s accusation implicates participants at the PRINPAG-BoG workshop.

It is therefore incumbent on Prof. Frimpong-Boateng to provide further and better particulars to counter Oppong Nkrumah and established that the meeting he (Prof. Frimpong-Boateng) was referring to was not the PRINPAG, BoG workshop.

If it turns out that Prof. Frimpong-Boateng was referring to the PRINPAG, BoG workshop, then it is false that a plot to bring him down was discussed as a media hatchet job.