A celebrated broadcast journalist and host of Dwaso Nsem on Adom FM, Omanhene Kwabena Asante, has launched a fierce and unreserved critique of the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GiIADEC), Raindorf Twumasi Ankrah, accusing him of blatant discrimination and selective application of policy in the allocation and termination of mining concessions.
Speaking on Asempa Fms Eko Siii Sen programme, the outspoken journalist described as “deeply troubling and indefensible” what he termed a pattern of calculated decisions that appear to favour politically connected individuals under the guise of promoting indigenous Ghanaian participation in the mining sector.
He argued that while government justified the abrogation of the Damang Goldfields contract on the basis of local participation, the subsequent reassignment of the concession to Ibrahim Mahama’s company, Engineers and Planners, raises serious questions about fairness, transparency, and consistency in policy implementation.
Kwabena Asante who’s also an addend social advocate further pointed to what he described as an emerging attempt to replicate the same approach in the Ghana Bauxite sector, where contracts held by wholly Ghanaian-owned entities, including that of businessman Isaac Ofori Poku, are allegedly being revoked to pave the way for the same beneficiary.
“This is not indigenisation; this is selective empowerment,” he stressed, warning that such actions risk eroding public trust and undermining genuine efforts to build a competitive local mining industry.
In a sharply worded appeal, he called on the GiIADEC CEO to “immediately reverse what can only be described as dubious and self-serving decisions” and restore the concessions to what he termed their “rightful custodians.”
“We all applauded when the government moved to take over a foreign-managed concession in the name of empowering Ghanaians.
But how do you justify taking from one Ghanaian and handing it to another with clear political ties?” he quizzed.
Omanhene Kwabena did not hold back in alleging that the perceived relationship between Ibrahim Mahama and Raindorf Twumasi Ankrah raises legitimate concerns about conflict of interest and behind-the-scenes manoeuvring aimed at sidelining existing indigenous operators.
He cautioned that failure to address these concerns promptly could deepen perceptions of cronyism and unfair competition within Ghana’s extractive sector, urging authorities to uphold transparency, equity, and due process in all concession-related decisions.
