The Ashanti Regional Communications Director of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Abass Nurudeen, has disclosed that the ruling government is now going to deal with Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, for his direct roles in alleged illegal mining activities among others.
Speaking on Accra-based Okay FM with Kwame Nkrumah, Abass Nurudeen denied Wontumi’s claim of political witch-hunting by the ruling government to suppress Chairman Wontumi for political advantage in the Ashanti Region.
He said, “The Bible teaches us that we reap what we sow. This is just comedy. In Ghana, there are several NPP people. If it is the NPP that the NDC wants to break down, the party has a national chairman why are we targeting Wontumi and not the National Chairman, Stephen Ntim, who is the leader of the party?” he asked.
While reacting to Chairman Wontumi’s call for NPP members to rise and resist the government’s attempt to arrest him in an effort to weaken him and the entire NPP, Counsel Abass Nurudeen, while mocking him, said, “The NPP has 16 regional chairmen among other executives—why not any of them but you, Wontumi?” he reiterated.
The NDC’s Ashanti Regional Director of Communication disclosed, “Five months ago, after the party left government on 7th January 2025, Chairman Wontumi, who was not a government official, was keeping government vehicles in his house through illegal means. When we went there with National Security, we even got more than we expected, and he respectfully handed over the cars to the team. Was that not a criminal act? If we wanted to use politics to hunt him, couldn’t we use that single act to send him to court?” Abass disclosed.
Wontumi Akonta Mining Galamsey Activities
“Chairman Wontumi is one individual who has successfully destroyed several hectares of forest reserves and river bodies through his licensed mining company, Akonta Mining Company Limited, operating illegally in unauthorized areas’’ Abass alledged.
Currently, his operations in the Tano Numire Forest Reserve and the pollution of the Oda River with mercury and cyanide gold-washing chemicals have contributed to high records of babies born with deformities.
“Do you know that Wontumi has two hundred excavators working in that area alone? We are not just conjuring stories to destroy him. I’m quoting records from a national anti-galamsey operation at his illegal mining site, where several Chinese working for him were arrested and confirmed that Wontumi hired them to work for him on the mining site. During the time of Samuel Abu Jinapor, what didn’t he say about Akonta Mining’s operations in the forest? Was he not in the same party with Wontumi? He told the whole country that Wontumi is doing galamsey in a forest reserve because he doesn’t have an operational mining permit but rather a prospecting license. That single act can land him 25 years in jail because the Minerals Act is clear on that.”
He urged Ghanaians to ignore claims by the Ashanti Regional Director of Communication of the NPP, Paul Kwabena Yandoh, that the NDC is witch-hunting Chairman Wontumi unjustifiably.
“We are acting according to the law. Paul Yandoh is saying that because Chairman Wontumi is the NPP chairman in the Ashanti Region, the laws should step aside for him when he commits offences against the country’s laws. How can we run a country with this mentality? During the NPP’s administration, the people they thought had committed crimes and caused financial loss to the country—didn’t they send them to court for prosecution? Please, let’s ignore Paul Yandoh’s claims because they are without merit,” he admonished Ghanaians and the media.
Wontumi’s Ghc.10 Million Exim Bank Loan for Maize Farming in Sekyere Kumawu District
Abass Nurudeen further disclosed that Chairman Wontumi is also wanted by the CID headquarters to answer questions on some government monies he took for specific projects, which he failed to deliver for the state.
He revealed that under the immediate past Nana Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party government, Chairman Wontumi was granted a government loan of 10 million cedis from Exim Bank for maize production at Kumawu in the Sekyere Kumawu District of the Ashanti Region, without any evidence of work done. He has to vomit the money he squandered.
“This money could have been used to support youth-targeted initiatives to check unemployment. Wontumi took the money and never utilized it for its intended purpose. The previous government saw nothing wrong with that because Chairman Wontumi is a member of the NPP. National Security needs him to answer questions on these issues. Wontumi should stop the emotional blacklisting and subject himself to scrutiny. If found clean with no wrongdoing, he will be a free man—that’s the position of the law,” he explained.
Wontumi on Cocoa Roads Project
“Under the NPP government Cocoa Roads Projects, Chairman Wontumi was awarded a contract to construct a tarred road not asphaltic road in the Western Region. One kilometer at a cost of $1.5 million. At the same time, asphaltic overlay was costing $800,000. But Wontumi collected $45 million for no work done,” Abass Nurudeen disclosed.
He further said that in the Ashanti Region, which is the stronghold of the New Patriotic Party and where Chairman Wontumi is the Regional Chairman of the party, he failed to deliver on a road contract awarded to him at Sabronum.
“He was awarded a road contract from Aboafour to Sabronum. With the full contract sum paid, including a mobilization fee, he failed to deliver for the state. I’m surprised people are accusing the government of witch-hunting, despite knowing what Wontumi has done to the state during the regime of the New Patriotic Party. Any person who steps up to say Wontumi should not face the consequences of his actions is worse than a nation wrecker.”
He warned NDC appointees under the current government to take lessons from the government’s probing actions against Wontumi and to use their positions wisely to serve the nation well, devoid of misappropriation of state funds.
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Source: www.kumasimail.com
