The Democratic Transformers Forum (DTF), an NDC-affiliated group, has called on Paul Adom Otchere, Board Chairman of the Ghana Airports Company and host of Good Evening Ghana, to immediately retract and apologize for false claims made about Dr. Toni Aubynn.
During the September 10, 2024, edition of his show, Adom Otchere allegedly misrepresented Dr. Aubynn, linking him to a video where someone purportedly encourages illegal miners (galamseyers) to vote for former President John Mahama during the 2020 elections.
In a press release issued on September 12, 2024, the DTF condemned Adom Otchere for falsely identifying Dr. Aubynn as the person in the video and for characterizing him as someone promoting illegal mining activities.
The DTF emphasized that Dr. Aubynn was neither seen nor heard in the video endorsing galamsey, and accused Adom Otchere of a deliberate attempt to tarnish Dr. Aubynn’s reputation.
The group described the allegations as baseless, politically motivated, and a calculated effort to discredit Dr. Aubynn, a respected figure in mining and corporate governance.
Dr. Aubynn, according to the DTF, has spent over 25 years advocating for sustainable mining practices and has made significant contributions to mining policy in Ghana and beyond.
The DTF has demanded that Paul Adom Otchere issue a public retraction and apology during his next broadcast. They warned that failure to do so could result in further action.
Dr. Toni Aubynn, a former CEO of the Ghana Chamber of Mines and the Minerals Commission, is widely recognized for his work in promoting responsible mining and sustainable communities.
The forum’s Executive Secretary, Ebenezer Potakey, signed the statement.
Below is the full statement by the DTF
12th September 2024
Democratic Transformers Forum (DTF) Demands Immediate Retraction and an Unqualified Apology From Paul Adom Otchere on His Unfounded Vitriolic Attacks and Misleading Information to the Public about Dr. Toni Aubynn
The Democratic Transformers Forum (DTF), an NDC-Pro Forum Organisation, is calling on Mr. Paul Adom Otchere, the Board Chairman of the Ghana Airports Company, a political apparatchik of the NPP and a self-styled journalist to, with immediate effect, withdraw, retract and apologise to Dr. Toni Aubynn for his baseless and unfounded attacks on his person and for (falsely) misrepresenting him (Dr. Toni Aubynn) to the good people of Ghana and the entire world, as the person who was found speaking in a video where the person speaking was purported to be encouraging galamseyers to vote for JM in the 2020 elections so they (the galamseyers) could continue with their galamsey activities should JM come to power in the 2020.
Paul Adom Otchere, on his Good Evening Ghana Programme on the 10th of September, 2024 showed a picture of Dr. Toni Aubynn and went ahead to castigate him and falsely describe him as a person who promotes galamsey. He also showed a video in which he deliberately, maliciously and falsely referred to a gentleman speaking to people at a galamsey site as being that of Dr. Toni Aubynn.
First and foremost, we would like to let the whole world know that the person to whom Paul Adom Otchere refers as Dr. Toni Aubynn as the second person speaking, and as captured by the said video, is in fact not Dr. Toni Aubynn. On the said video, Dr. Toni Aubynn was actually never seen or heard from the purported video to have uttered a word that may even be remotely close to encouraging the galamseyers to do more galamsey.
This deliberate misrepresentation by Paul, to us, is nothing more than an act that can only be planned and left to be executed by a person who is shamelessly insincere and of little or no credibility at all. Such a deliberate distortion of facts by Paul is only calculated to rob the good name of Dr. Toni Aubynn in the mud and fly same in the face of the general public so as to bring his (Dr. Aubynn) hard earned reputation into disrepute. Paul’s dramatic presentation on Dr. Aubynn is only but a deliberate act to cause discontent and hatred for him before the general public; and we dare say this act will only be perpetuated by a person whom, not been a stooge, is only used as a comic figure or as a fool who foot the bill, by his “wise” masters, to falsely and maliciously attack a venerable personality of high repute and integrity in the person of Dr. Toni Aubynn. Definetly, a person like Paul Adom Otchere and his misdirected views, with a paranoid perception of people, can no longer be taken seriously by discerning listeners in our current political discourse.
Paul can neither say that he does not know the person of Dr. Toni Aubynn so as to mistake him for another person beside whom Dr. Toni Aubynn stood in the purported video nor can he say that any words uttered by that speaker purported to be him (Dr. Toni Aubynn) in the said video are said to promote galamsey. It is clear to us that Paul’s dramatic presentation on Dr. Toni Aubynn, on his now popular NPP’s kitchen cabinet-dirty-propaganda-cooking programme of Good Evening Ghana, was a deliberate but politically orchestrated attempt by him and his political appendages to run the highly earned reputation of Dr. Aubynn into disrepute and to deliberately create discontent and hatred for him in the eyes of right thinking members of the society, to say the least. We dare say, however, that his propaganda attempt is dead on arrival. He and his sinking party are well at the verge of drowning and they are now looking for a straw to hold on for survival. Attacking Dr. Aubynn will certainly not offer them any salvaging.
Dr. Toni Aubynn is a decorated business executive, a celebrated corporate personality and a distinguished technocrat who is highly reputed for his most exceptional expertise in mining, corporate governance, communication, banking and Law, among other distinguished professions. Dr. Aubynn’s views on mining policies are widely available for many and for anybody who cares to just google his name for that same purpose. In his over 25 years of involvement in mining and mining consultancy, he has personally been instrumental in developing strategic policies that are geared towards promoting sustainable mining in Ghana and Africa. He spent many of his active years helping to design and implement policies geared towards encouraging and promoting responsible mining for sustainable communities and to think otherwise of him is highly ridiculous of anyone.
It needs to be stated that during his times as a corporate person working in the mining sector, as the CEO of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, as the CEO of the Ghana Minerals Commission and as a private consultant in mining, Dr. Aubynn has given many talks and written many policy documents to assist mining corporations, the government of Ghana and governments in Africa and the world over, to help promote sustainable mining.
With the knowledge about who the man Dr. Toni Aubynn is, his views about mining could never have been what the diabolical and comical Paul Adom Otchere purports to paint to the rest of the world in his NPP Politically propagandist programme of Good Evening Ghana.
We dare say that Paul Adom Otchere, in whom we see an NPP grassroots Propagandist communicator masquerading as a self-styled journalist, has no locus to even discuss Dr. Toni Aubynn in the manner he did whatsoever. His personal closet is full of curb webs and we dare caution him to hasten slowly in his baseless attacks on the person of Dr. Toni Aubynn. Dr. Aubynn is not beyond criticism if he goes wrong, but even at that a crook personality as Paul Adom Otchere is certainly not the fit person to call him names even at his (Dr. Aubynn’s) lows, and that is, if even this is the case here, which is certainly not.
Our advice once again to Paul is that he should retract and unreservedly apologize to Dr. Toni Aubynn in his (Paul’s) next available show and to give the same credence to such retraction as he did for his baseless accusations and unfounded vitriolic castigation of the person of Dr. Toni Aubynn. Should he fail to heed to this peaceful advice, he should be prepared for something of a measure that will come his way he cannot possibly comprehend.
Thank you.
Signed: Ebenezer Potakey
Executive Secretary,
Democratic Transformers Forum
To:
Paul Adom Otchere, Host, Good Evening Ghana
Metro TV Ghana
CC:
All media Houses