NPP Ashanti Regional Chairman Bernard Antwi Boasiako (Chairman Wontumi)
The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako (Chairman Wontumi), has claimed that the revocation of the mining licence of his company, Akonta Mining Limited, has to do with his bid to become the National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Speaking in an interview with GhanaWeb on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, Wontumi accused the ruling National Democratic Congress of trying to sabotage his national chairmanship bid.
He asserted that the Cabinet of President John Dramani Mahama has taken the decision to frustrate his bid, and the revocation of the licence of Akonta Mining is all part of the ploy.
“What I have heard is that it is the Cabinet of His Excellency Mahama that has decided that they have to find a way of dealing with Wontumi because I have decided to run for the national chairman position.
“This is what I want to do to support my party… this is pure hatred. This is a political witch-hunt led by Armah-Kofi Buah,” he said in the Twi dialect.
Wontumi accused the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, of bringing the mining equipment of illegal miners to Akonta Mining’s compound to make it seem like they were rather the ones engaging in an illegality.
“He (the minister) has made the security officers transport the excavators and other mining equipment of some people and move them to our yard. We had only two bulldozers and excavators, which were being used for the reclamation of the land. None of my machines were there,” he claimed.
He told GhanaWeb that his company cannot be engaging in any illegality in the Tano Forest Reserve because it stopped operating there since the previous government suspended its licence in 2023.
The NPP national chairman hopeful went on to call on President Mahama to stop the attacks against him.
Background:
Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, during a press briefing on April 21, 2025, directed the Minerals Commission to revoke the mining licence of Akonta Mining Ltd over illegal operations.
According to him, a joint operation by the Ghana Police Service and the Forestry Commission led to the discovery of six illegal mining sites linked to Akonta Mining.
The minister said that the operation in Compartment 49, which began at 5 AM and lasted a whopping 12 hours, resulted in:
51 arrests (8 Chinese, 39 Ghanaian men, 4 Ghanaian women)
Seizure of about 30 excavators, 5 recovered and impounded at the operation base, 2 pump-action guns loaded with 5 and 2 rounds of BB cartridges each; one single-barrel gun retrieved
Confiscation of 2 Toyota Hilux pickups, 1 Toyota RAV4, four motorbikes, and a cache of mining equipment.
BAI/AE
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