The management of Asanko Gold Mines is in serious talks with the National Security to deploy armed military personnel to be stationed at Tontokrom to protect every mining concession in the community which Asanko Gold Mines has claimed ownership.
This was revealed by indigenes and residents of Manso Tontokrom who said, they are reliably informed about the development and that the idea behind that arrangement is that Asanko Gold Mines management wants to treat indigens and residents in Tontokrom as foreigners who are preventing their (Asanko Gold) workers from operating.
At a press conference, residents of the area indicated that, it is never true that foreigners are based in Tontokrom and that everyone living in Tontokrom is a full Ghanaian.
“In the year 2018, soldiers were deployed under the influence of this same Asanko Gold Mines management to Tontokrom and Datano where the soldiers chased a student into a nearby river in Datano and died for not committing any crime,” they said.
They also recounted how a woman with her young child were killed by these same armed military personnel who were deployed to Tontokrom.
“The question we the indigens and residents in Tontokrom are asking is that what at all do management of Asanko Gold Mines want from us,
How can we suffer from our own land as Ghanaians?”
They said, they are hardworking people who depend solely on mining activities as their source of employment and this mining concession that Asanko Gold Mines is claiming ownership is meant for Small Scale mining activities which is less than 25 acres.
They said, because they are the indigens and residents living in Tontokrom, they have fully embraced the Community Mining Scheme that is why “we have registered the mining concession which is very closer to the community to enable us operate Responsible Small Scale Community Mining which the documentation process is ongoing.”
They appealed to the government through the National Security Minister, Hon Albert Kan Dapaah and the minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Hon Samuel Abu Jinapor to intervene to stop the management of Asanko Gold Mines since they cannot fight the government.
