The chief and Krontihene of Kwapia, Nana Gyamena Kwabena Oyiakwan II and Nana Anokye, Ababio respectively, have hauled the Obuasi Municipal Assembly, in the Ashanti region, including four Chinese Nationals to court to explain the circumstance under which the Assembly converted land earmarked for an One District One Factory (1D1F) was diverted into Community mining site without the consent of the Stool.
Nana Gyamena Kwabena Oyiakwan II and Nana Anokye, Ababio, amongst other things is praying the Court to order for perpetual injunction, recovery and repossession as well as an order that the Assembly does not possess the core mandate to engage and undertaking mining as per the Local Government Act, 2016 of Act 926.
It is the contention of the Plaintiff, that the Assembly, without the consent of the Kwapia chief turned some portion of land belong to the stool which have been earmarked 1D1F into part of their land concession for community mining site.
“At all material times, Defendants and their agents positioned well-armed security men, holding pump action guns and sophisticated armed to ward off complaints, including the Plaintiff,” the statement of claims stated.
After the mining activities, the Assembly has refused to reclaim the land making it difficult for the 1D1F project to commence.
This is not the first time the complaints are flying in about the activities of the Assembly.
Recall that Part of the 1,000-acre land that was leased by the Adanse Traditional Council to the company to grow oil palm to feed the factory was invaded by illegal miners who have already destroyed large portions of the plantation.
The management of the company expressed fears over the current development, saying it would derail the company’s plans and affect its ability to pay back credit it took to establish the processing plant and the farms.
LEAPAB, according to sources started operations in 2018 with a GH¢20 million credit facility from the Ghana Exim Bank.
The Odikro of Adaase where a large portion of the 1000-acre land is located, Nana KwadwoAsamoah, condemned the activities of the illegal miners whom, he said, had polluted all the water bodies in the community.
He said the situation had been worsened by the introduction of community mining as one was unable to tell who was doing what and where.
Nana Asamoah has pointed accusing fingers at the Obuasi Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Elijah AdansiBonah, as the one who was leading the small-scale miners to destroy the land.
According to the company, after invading the land for gold, the illegal miners also failed to reclaim the parcels of land, thereby denying the company use of them for farming purposes.
Meanwhile, When the MCE was contacted by the Daily Graphic then, he denied any involvement in the illegal mining of the land in question. He claimed all the assertions were machinations to tarnish his image.
According to him, the portion of land the company was claiming had been leased to it “is still part of AngloGold Ashanti’s concession and has not been released to the community.”
He said when the government launched the community mining scheme at Bekwai last year, “we thought that part of the area being talked about will be given out for community mining.”
“However, checks revealed that AngloGold Ashanti had not released the land to anyone and that those mining on it have been asked to relocate to a site allocated for community mining which was just on the other side of the road.”
MrBonah said the assembly had had to erect a signpost at the site to indicate that the area was reserved for community mining.
Stay tuned…
