The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice has closed its case against Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi-Basiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, together two co-accused persons in an ongoing illegal mining trial.
This was announced by the Deputy Attorney-General Justice Sai.
The case involves Chairman Wontumi, Kwame Antwi who is currently at large and Akonta Mining Limited.
The state prosecutor alleges that Chairman Wontumi unlawfully allowed illegal mining activities, commonly known as galamsey, to be carried out on his mining concession at Samreboi without the required ministerial approval.
According to the Deputy Attorney-General, the prosecution called four witnesses to establish its case.
The first witness, identified as a galamsey headman, testified that he supervised several individuals engaged in illegal mining activities on the concession.
He told the court that he was arrested along with other miners at an Akonta Mining office located on the concession.
The second witness, who was described as the employer of the first witness, testified that he had an arrangement with Chairman Wontumi to conduct galamsey operations on the concession under the guise of land reclamation.
He further alleged that Chairman Wontumi used his political influence to secure national security protection for the illegal mining activities.
A police detective, who appeared as the third witness, tendered investigative statements into evidence. Among them was a statement in which Chairman Wontumi admitted to granting part of his Samreboi concession to the second witness, but claimed it was solely for land reclamation purposes and not for mining.
The detective told the court that no money was provided for the reclamation.
The fourth witness, a mining law and regulation expert, testified that any arrangement allowing another person to undertake mining activities on a concession requires prior approval from the sector minister.
He told the court that Akonta Mining Limited did not have such approval to permit mining or land reclamation activities by another party on the concession.
Following the close of the prosecution’s case, lawyers for Chairman Wontumi informed the court of their intention to file a submission of no case to answer, arguing that the prosecution has failed to establish sufficient evidence to require their client to mount a defence.
The defence has been given 14 days to file the submission, which the prosecution has indicated it will strongly oppose.
The case has been adjourned to a later date.
