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The president of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has defended Akonta Mining Company Limited by asserting that the company is not involved in galamsey, or illicit mining.
The New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Ashanti Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, also known as Chairman Wontumi, owns Akonta Mining, which has made headlines for illegally mining in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve in the Western Region.
President Akufo underlined that the company has not been implicated in any wrongdoing while addressing at the 28th National and 16th Biennial Congress of the National Union of Ghana Catholic Diocesan Priests Association in Koforidua.
“I want to assure you all that Akonta Mining is not engaged in any form of illegal mining anywhere in Ghana as we speak,” he insisted.
The Forestry Commission was instructed by the Lands Ministry to guarantee that the corporation doesn’t conduct any operations in the forest and to take the appropriate legal measures against anyone found to be at fault in the situation.
This came after it declared that the company’s operations in the Forest Reserve were completely unlawful.
“Records available to the Ministry show that while Akonta Mining Ltd has a mining lease to undertake mining operations in some parts of Samreboi, outside the Forest Reserve, the company has no mineral right to undertake any mining operations in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve.”
Although the mining business has a lease to conduct mining activities in some areas of Samreboi, the government asserted that the company lacks the necessary mineral rights to conduct any mining operations in the Tano Nimiri forest reserve.
People in charge of Akonta Mining Limited’s work in the forest reserve have been called for to be prosecuted.
In reality, the Special Prosecutor is currently looking into the matter of the mining firm.
The Media Coalition Against Galamsey has lately resurrected their demands for the detention and prosecution of Akonta Mining Limited directors and personnel for their alleged involvement in the crime.
According to the Ministry’s records, Akonta Mining Ltd. applied for a mining lease to conduct operations in the aforementioned Forest Reserve on August 25, 2022.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
