Wontumi’s Akonta Mining cannot be left off the hook – Ken Ashigbey
“I would want to give the President the benefit of the doubt, but say to the OSP and the IGP that that investigation needs to happen, of what happened in 2022 for which the Minerals Commission issued a release in support of what the Lands Minister had said, for which the people of Samraboi fought,”
There has been renewed call on the Ghana Police Service and the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to continue their probe into illegal mining allegations against Akonta Mining Limited in 2022.
The Media Coalition Against Galamsey which is leading this charge insists the mining firm owned by the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) cannot be left off the hook as he suggests available evidence cites his mining firm for perpetrating the illegality that year.
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His remarks come after President Akufo-Addo, speaking at the 8th National and 16th Biennial Congress of the National Union of Ghana Catholic Diocesan Priests Association on Wednesday, said the mining company “is not engaged in any illegal mining anywhere in Ghana as we speak.”
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President Akufo-Addo responded to a question by Mr Ashigbey, who chaired the event, regarding Akonta Mining Company Limited’s mining activity in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve in the Western North Region.
Reacting to the comment on Wednesday, Mr Ashigbey told Accra-based Joy FM that “it is instructive to hear the President defend that Akonta Mining Limited is not involved in any illegality as we speak.”
“If you look at the petition that we sent to the IGP and Attorney General and we copied to the President and for which we sent a reminder, we were talking about the incident that [has been] reported and also the press release issued by the Lands Minister in September and the statement issued by the Minerals Commission in collaboration with the Minister … so we were referring to illegality that had happened in 2022,” he added.
Crime is not time-bound
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“I would want to give the President the benefit of the doubt, but say to the OSP and the IGP that that investigation needs to happen, of what happened in 2022 for which the Minerals Commission issued a release in support of what the Lands Minister had said, for which the people of Samraboi fought,”
Ing. Ashigbey believes questions ought to be asked on the ownership of equipment on the mining site as well as the structures destroyed.
Background
It would be recalled that Akonta Mining Limited, which belongs to New Patriotic Party’s Ashanti Region Chairman, Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, stopped mining in the Tano Nimiri forest reserve in October 2022 by the Lands Ministry.
According to the Ministry, even though Akonta Mining Limited had a mining lease to undertake mining operations in some parts of Samreboi, outside the Forest Reserve, the company had no mineral right to undertake any mining operations in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor is investigating the matter.
SOURCE: DAILY MAIL GH
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