Bernard Antwi Boasiako, the Managing Director of Akonta Mining Company Limited, appeared before an Accra High Court charged with assignment of minerals without approval, among other charges.
Boasiako, known as Chairman Wontumi, is also charged with purposely facilitating an unlicensed mining operation at Samreboi in Ghana’s Western Region.
His accomplice, Kwame Antwi, a co-director who is at large, has been charged with assignment of mineral rights without approval.
Also joined in the criminal suit was Chairman Wontumi’s firm, the Akonta Mining Company Limited.
The court has granted Wontumi, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), a GH₵15-million bail with three sureties.
This was after he had denied all the charges before the court, presided over by Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay.
Two of the sureties, the court said, were to be justified with landed property.
It ordered that the accused person be put on the Stop List at all the country’s existing points, and should also deposit his passports with the court’s registry.
Additionally, Wontumi is to report twice every month to the case investigator.
The case has been adjourned to October 28, 2025, and the prosecution has been given three weeks to file its disclosures.
Mr Andy Appiah-Kubi, Counsel for Chairman Wontumi, earlier prayed the court to admit the accused person to bail, saying his client was not a flight risk, and he had men and women of substance to stand as sureties.
Defence Counsel reminded the court that Wontumi was on police enquiry bail, and had cooperated with the police, adding that he was well known and should be admitted to bail on favourable terms.
Dr Justice Srem-Sai, the Deputy Attorney General (AG), did not oppose to bail but prayed the court to admit the accused person to appropriate conditions considering the impact of mining.
The Deputy AG noted that mining without a license was the court’s biggest challenge, and the minimum sentence was 15 years’ imprisonment.
He prayed the court to retain the passport of the accused person and should be made to report to the police twice every week.
The facts before the court are that the first accused person, Boasiako, 49, is an entrepreneur and a native of Kuntanase in the Ashanti Region.
On paper, the prosecution said Boasiako was one of the two shareholders and one of the two directors of Akonta Mining Company Limited, the third accused.
The third accused person (an Entity) was incorporated on November 5, 2010, with “mining and exploration” as its objective and principal business activities.
Tarkwa has been listed as the principal place of business of the company.
However, the Akonta Mining Company Limited operates mainly in the Samreboi area of the Western Region.
The second accused person, Kwame Antwi, now at large, is listed as the other shareholder and director of the company.
Prosecution said when asked about the whereabouts of his co-shareholder and co-director, Wontumi stated in both his police charge statement and investigative caution statement that he never saw or heard of Antwi since 2010, after they both completed the company registration and other registration formalities.
Investigations have, accordingly, established that Boasiako alone had since exercised absolute control over the company’s activities.
“Further investigation is ongoing to establish the existence and, if so, identity of Antwi,” the prosecution said.
As part of Ghana’s fight against the galamsey (illegal mining) menace, the Ghana Police Service embarked on a special operation on April 16, 2025, in the Samreboi area.
At the end of the operation on April 17, 2025, the police arrested Michael Ayisi Gyedu, a 50-year-old native of Samreboi and 28 others within the company’s concession.
During the arrest, the police retrieved eight pump-action guns, a single-barreled gun, five pieces of metal suspected to be gold concealed in a sachet, four machetes, several water pumping machines, 310 AAA/BB cartridges, a grease gun, four motorcycles, two vehicles and cash of GH₵157,000.
Additionally, 25 serviceable excavators and four non-serviceable excavators were also retrieved.
Upon his arrest, Michael Ayisi Gyedu named another person, Henry Okum, a 44-year-old native of Krobo Odumase, as his employer who assigned him to supervise the mining activities on the concession.
Gyedu stated that he and the other employees undertook land reclamation on parts of the concession that had been devastated while mining on the unmined portions of the land.
Okum was subsequently arrested and cautioned. During interrogation, he told police investigators under caution that sometime in September 2024, he approached and sought permission from Boasiako to undertake mining operations within the concession, which was believed to belong to A1 at Samreboi.
Investigations have established that Boasiako did agree to the proposal and permitted Okum to carry out the mining operations.
Further investigations have, however, established that Boasiako allowed Okum to carry out mining activities within the company’s concession without seeking or obtaining the legally mandated approval from the authorities.
