Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, the owner of Akonta Mining Limited
Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, the owner of Akonta Mining Limited, has denied a report by journalist, Erastus Asare Donkor, that his company is involved with some chinese illegal miners.
“Many of the Chinese criminals who were making the river dirty told us on camera that they were working for Akonta Mining”, Erastus Asare Donkor wrote on his Facebook.
His comment comes on the back of allegations by the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Forestry Commission, Elikem Kotoko, who also took to his Facebook page to associate Akonta Mining with the illegal mining activities of the chinese nationals reportedly arrested by Ghana Police Service.
“On the eve of Good Friday, just after wrapping up my working visit to the Ashanti Region, I joined an intelligence led Ghana Police Service personnel on behalf of the Forestry Commission Ghana in a raid of about six (6) illegal mining sites allegedly belonging to AKONTA MINING (which is believed to belong to the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP popularly known as Chairman Wontumi) in Samreboi, Western North Region.
The exercise resulted in the arrest of 6 Chinese, 2 Koreans and 18 Ghanaians. A total of 8 excavators were also taken and some 5 abandoned at their locations due to mobility challenge”, Elikem Kotoko alleged.
In response, Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, popularly called Chairman Wontumi, refuted Elikem Kotoko’s allegations stating “I have no idea who the illegal miners arrested by the police are and I am committed to protecting the environment of Ghana through legal mining despite Akonta Mining Limited not being in operation for some time now”.
Although Chairman Wontumi has set the record straight, Erastus Asare Donkor’s assertion on Facebook, to him, cannot go unresponded to.
Wontumi has therefore challenged the journalist to provide evidence backing his claim and admonished him not to assume himself to be a “social media hero”.
Antwi Boasiako reiterated that “no chinese man is working for me”.
“I am not working; I have stopped working for a very long time. So, I am challenging Erastus, if he claims he has arrested anybody who has been caught engaging in illegal mining and claims is working for Akonta, he should send the person to court”, he remarked on Wontumi Radio
He added; “I am challenging him. Akonta Mining is a legal mining company but the only thing is that we are not working. We have all the documents just like AngloGold and others have.”
AME
