Owner of Akonta Mining Limited, Bernard Antwi Boasiako popularly known as Chairman Wontumi has vowed to protect the Nimri Forest Reserve from illegal mining operations known in local parlance as galamsey.
According to him, illegal miners have taken over the concession gazetted to him.
“I applied for Nimri Forest which is at Western North…I don’t have lease there but the truth is that they have gazetted the place for me”, Chairman Wontumi, who is also the Ashanti Regional Chairman for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) said.
In 2013, he recounted that some illegal miners invaded his mining site and left the place in deplorable state forcing him to use his own money for reclamation.
Chairman Wontumi however stated on Wontumi TV that, he is yet to get a license to mine in the Nimri Forest Reserve but has the forest gazetted to his company- Akonta Mining Limited.
“The place has been gazette to me so if I am unable to protect it from the illegal miners, they will let me use my money to recover the land”, he said.
The NPP Chairman also revealed that, his company is in court with timber company, Samartex over ownership of the land.
He said the company has vowed not to allow him work in the Nimri Forest Reserve but his lawyers has written to management of Samatex.
“I also replied them through my lawyers and the issue is at Sekondi Court and we are expecting judgment”, he added.