Bompieso Chiefs Warn ‘Goro Boys’ For Attacking Newly Launched Community Mining

The Chiefs and elders of Bompieso in the Prestea-Huni Valley municipality in the Western region, led by Nana Brempong II, have rubbished claims that a recent Community Mining programme launched in his area, was done on a disputed land.

According to the traditional ruler, the land in question belongs to him and his community, issuing stern warning to anyone or group of persons, parading themselves as owners, and vilifying the laudable project to desist and stay off.

Speaking in a telephone interview with The Anchor yesterday, the chief said, “The land in Bompieso, I am the custodian of the land, my name is Nana Brempong II, and the area in question is an abandoned shaft which the community people have been working on for years, just to survive”.

According to him, “It is the concession of Goldfields Damang. The whole concession belongs to Goldfields Damang, but we have been working with them to cede that portion of land to us so that, we can register it properly and then work on it.

It has been there for years, so when this government’s policy of Community Mining came, we decided to do just that and then get a sponsor to actually help us operate it properly”.

He explained that, “Unknown to us, some people had gone ahead to the Lands Ministry to apply, so we saw them on the land and we sacked them. We said it belongs to the community and any abandoned shaft used for Community Mining belongs to the stool, so they have been battling up and down with us. In fact, we wrote to the Minister and copied Mineral’s Commission as far back as 2022, to stop them. It is not their concession, because they have not been granted concession”.

‘Goro Boys’ Attack

The reaction by the chiefs, follows a scathing attack by journalist, Gordon Asare Bediako on a Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, George Mireku Duker on Tuesday, March 12, claiming that the minister had forcefully taken the said concession from some miners.

According to Gordon Asare Bediako, who owns ABC newspaper, the land belongs to some individuals, but failed to mention their names, except to say that he has documents showing that they are the true owners, he made the allegation on Movement Television.

He said, “I am talking about Mireku Duker. I wasn’t going to talk about it, but because of what he is doing, I am going to publish the documents I have.

The land is not yours, but you are forcefully taking the land from the people when they have done all the documentation, they have paid all the necessary money and his Minister Abu Jinapor, has signed off the concession, but you said you won’t release it. Last two weeks, the same land that belongs to the people, he went and said that it is going to be used for Community Mining”.

“He had decorated the place with posters of his Minister and the President, but no one attended. He can’t even inform them, because the land doesn’t belong to him. I have gone for documents from Lands Commission and we have done the search, anywhere we have gone to discuss the matter, they mentioned it is the MP Mireku Duker. You and the DCE, who is your cousin, you are doing this with him and you are the only ones that deserve everything. Why are you like that?” he said on the television station.

Strangers

But Nana Brempong II, rubbished the journalist’s allegations.

He stated that, the personalities parading as owners are not from the community and have absolutely no right to the land, except to say that, they are small scale miners, whom he has met a few times at the Police Station and the Lands Minister, Samuel Abu Jinapor’s office for mediation.

“They are a group of people who have come together and they call themselves “wo b3 di be” or something, they are small scale miners. The first time I saw them, was when we went to the Police Station and then when we met at the Minerals’ Commission.

We have had series of meetings at the Minister’s office that they should come and see us so that we settle it amicably, so that if they want some place they register them and work, but they insisted that they just want the place where our people are working and we said that cannot be, because it is an abandoned shaft and it was on the concession of Goldfields Daman and that place now has been ceded.

If it is ceded to the community, nobody else can come from somewhere and say that he is coming to take possession of it to do small scale mining, and that it belongs to them no; it is for the community. So, if anybody says the Minister has done something, we went through the due process for the Minister to come and launch it for us”.

Minister Innocent

He absolved the Deputy Minister and Member of Parliament (MP) for the Tarkwa Nsueam constituency saying, “The Deputy Minister, has not taken any land from anyone. The Deputy Minister, is not involved in anything. The deputy minister, has not hijacked anybody’s land and in fact, the Deputy Minister is not part of anything concerning this land.

It belongs to the community, so if the so-called Gordon Asare Bediako, has heard the story, the right thing for him to do is to come to the community and interview me and interview the people in the community”.

“You don’t get one side of the story and say, you are going to publish, that is not good journalism, get to know the facts before you go public, so you don’t just hear the story from one side and you say, you are going to publish what?” the chief quizzed.

 More To Come…

Source:Anchorghana.com