Former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
The John Dramani Mahama government has revoked the mining licence of Akonta Mining Limited, a mining company owned by the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako (Chairman Wontumi), over illegal operations.
According to the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, 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 in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve.
But this is not the first time Chairman Wontumi’s mining company has been in the news over its mining activities.
In 2023, the then Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, announced that Akonta Mining was involved in an illegality in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve.
However, days after the destruction of the equipment and structures of Akonta Mining in the forest reserve, the then-president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, exonerated the company of any wrongdoing.
Akufo-Addo said that Wontumi’s company was not engaged in illegal mining anywhere in the country, following calls for the arrest of the NPP regional chairman.
“Let me respond briefly to the chairperson on the issue of illegal mining. I want to assure him and all of you that Akonta Mining is not engaged in any illegal mining anywhere in Ghana as we speak.
“Further, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has, through the agency of the Forestry Commission, with the assistance of the military, made the effort to cordon off all 294 sites of forest reserves in the country and rid them of illegal mining as we speak,” he said.
Watch Akufo-Addo’s remarks in the video below:
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