Chairman Wontumi, owner of Akonta Mining Limited, is expected to be brought to Accra today to have his rights formally read to him ahead of prosecution over alleged illegal mining activities in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve. This follows the resurfacing of a long-suppressed police docket dating back to 2022.
The case against Akonta Mining Limited and its owner, Chairman Wontumi, centres on serious environmental violations, including mining “a few inches to the Tano River,” which directly contravenes Ghana’s River Buffer Zone Policy prohibiting mining within 50 to 100 meters of a major river. The company is also accused of contaminating the Tano River after its tailings were reportedly “leaked directly into the river,” with drone footage cited as evidence. In addition, Akonta Mining Limited is alleged to have illegally entered and operated within the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve, a claim reportedly supported by a statement issued by the Forestry Commission indicting the company for the invasion.
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Investigations into these activities began in 2022, when the Ghana Police Service reportedly conducted what was described as “diligent investigations.” However, the resulting docket was allegedly “hidden,” stalling the case for nearly two years. The docket resurfaced about two months ago when police reportedly presented it to the office of an official involved in the ongoing discourse.
Following the rediscovery of the case file, formal charges were signed against Chairman Wontumi, Akonta Mining Limited, and five others. Authorities are now arranging for Wontumi to be brought from Kumasi to Accra, with officials insisting on his arrival by Monday to avoid issuing a formal arrest warrant. Although it was noted that he has already been granted bail, details about the timing and context of that bail remain unclear in relation to the pending prosecution.
The Akonta Mining case forms part of broader allegations of illegal mining operations in Ghana’s protected forest reserves, often linked to politically connected individuals and weak institutional enforcement. A 2018 incident in the Anquaso Forest Reserve, for instance, involved a former politician’s driver allegedly engaging in forest destruction and attempting to bribe a task force with “40,000 cedis to buy koku,” but no official follow-up reportedly occurred. Similarly, repeated invasions of the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve in Enchi have been linked to figures such as “Chairman Addison of the NPP,” with no reported arrests and excavators allegedly relocated to nearby villages “waiting for this whole thing to die down.”
Institutional responses have drawn criticism. The Ghana Police Service’s earlier investigation was marred by the alleged concealment of the docket, while the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) have been accused of slow or inadequate progress. The Forestry Commission, despite indicting Akonta Mining for the forest invasion, is said to have failed to prevent repeat incursions, with some of its officers in Enchi accused of complicity — allegations that led to a formal complaint to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) by Sullemana Issifu and Dr. Jacob Safo of the Center for Climate Change and Food Security on January 5, 2024.
CHRAJ reportedly contacted the journalist behind the original report to seek clarification but has provided no subsequent updates.
