Galamseyers Are Accusing And Threatening My Life Because I Rally With Soldiers To Fight Their Illegal Activities-Okobeng Mining CEO Declares
According to the seasoned miner, he has become a prime target of attack by thousands of illegal small-scale miners, because he strongly rallied support for the state mining regulatory institutions including soldiers and police officers to clamp down on their illegal mining activities in these communities.
Freeman Koryekpor 
THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE Officer of Okobeng Mining Company, Nana Okobeng Amponsah, stated that there are series of attacks on his person, threats to his life and blame games against him by thousands of illegal small-scale miners, popularly known as the galamseyers, who are indiscriminately mining from communities including Bamiankor, Ayinase, Gwira-Ampasie, Akango, Dualle and Akosono in the Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira Municipality of the Western Region.
According to the seasoned miner, he has become a prime target of attack by thousands of illegal small-scale miners, because he strongly rallied support for the state mining regulatory institutions including soldiers and police officers to clamp down on their illegal mining activities in these communities.
Nana Okobeng Amponsah stated that he has legally acquired a 31.5 kilometre square gold mining concession at Dominase in the Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira Municipality.
"Since l secured my concession and got the necessary legal license and permit from the state mining regulatory institutions including Minerals Commission and Environmental Protection Agency, l have been using legal means to protect my gold mining concession from being invaded by illegal small scale miners.
"…So if I notice that someone has invaded my concession, l report such a person to the police to be arrested and processed before the law court.”
Nana Okobeng Amponsah expressed these sentiments when he was debunking media reports which have gone viral on social and traditional media platforms to the effect that he has fired gunshots at two key small scale miners at an illegal gold mining site at Gwira-Ampasie in the Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira Municipality of the Western Region.
According to Nana Okobeng Amponsah, his recent woes were orchestrated by a leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) who doubles as a Member of Parliament (MP) in the Western Region (name withheld) who is in league with a senior police officer in Takoradi to influence these two key small-scale miners to accuse him of shooting to kill them in galamsey site.
While admitting that he fired a gun, he said it was to ward off illegal miners who at the time were pelting stones at him and Nana Adu who had visited the site of the illegal miners at Gwira-Ampasie.
He said it was part of their efforts to prevent illegal mining activities which have been polluting River Akonbra and other water bodies in the region.
Nana Okobeng Amponsah stated that he has legally acquired a 31.5 kilometre square gold mining concession at Dominase in the Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira Municipality of the Western Region.
But he indicated that the recent allegations levelled against him that he fired gunshots to kill those two miners were completely untrue and unfounded.
He explained that the case was currently on trial in a court in Half Assini.
He expressed shock that the two miners who had since accused him have not showed up in court for four conservative sittings but were still making noises in the media.
Nana Okobeng Amponsah told journalists that the killing of those two miners’ story was ostensibly cooked by the two miners with the advice and support of their paymasters to soil his personal reputation since he has been using state regulatory bodies and security personnel to fight illegal small-scale mining activities destroying Ankonbra.
He pointed out that there were clear evidences from records in the hospital that the wounds sustained were not from gunshots.
To push their devil agenda further, Nana Okobeng Amponsah mentioned that this faceless MP and the senior police officer in Takoradi have taken the two miners to the Sekondi District Police Command to secretly secure police medical forms for them to be taken to the hospital and claim that they had sustained gunshot wounds.
He stated that when the two went for the police medical forms to the hospital, he was informed that a medical doctor told them they should re-send the police hospital forms to their area of jurisdiction for the doctor there to sign and certify the forms for them.
"However, when the two miners brought their police medical forms to their area of jurisdiction, l [Nana Okobeng Amponsah] told journalists that l was informed the consulting doctor told the two in that he was aware of what was happening in the previous hospital they had attended"
Following this development, he noted that those top personalities who are in league with the two miners went to look for another medical doctor in Takoradi and forced him to sign the police medical forms.
"It has showed clearly the levels at which this case has travelled, and it attest to the fact that there is no iota of truth in the allegations levelled against me," Nana Okobeng Amponsah explained.
He dared anyone to go to the security agencies for the matter to be investigated
He stressed that he was speaking the truth and that he cannot lie to Ghanaians since he is a loyal and law-abiding citizen of Ghana.
Articulating on the genesis of what led to the firing of the gun warning into the air, Nana Okobeng Amponsah noted that for the past months ago, when he went to his concession and fortunately he met the chief of Ampasie.
According to him, “he asked the chief that he was told that the chiefs in these communities were informed that if they had seen that the boats were in their areas are working on river Akonbra to coverge the galamseyers to their illegal sites they would come to arrest them.”
He pointed out that he told the chief that when l am talking to you, the boat operators are still working on the river for which l heard the noises of the machines of the boats.
Nana Okobeng Amponsah indicated that the chief has responded that they had said several times to stop the boat operators to work on the water bodies but they realized that the place is a boundary between Gwira-Ampasie and Akango.
Nana Okobeng Amponsah said he invited a chief in the area called Nana Adu to accompany him to the area where the boat operators were working on the river.
He pointed out that they used a speed boat to the scene and upon reaching, realized that the activities of the illegal small-scale miners in the area were very terrible.
The illegal miners, he said, started pelting them with stones upon their arrival.
According to him, realising the danger posed by the pelting of stones, he fired warning shots into the thin air, ostensibly to scare them away.
He stated that after he fired the warning shots, he realized that the illegal miners were still throwing more stones at them.
According to him, they left the place but upon reaching home in the evening, he had a telephone call from police officers from the Dominase Police Station indicating that someone had come to lodge a complaint against “me that l came to fire gunshot at the mining site at Gwira-Ampasie and that they were hit by bullets.”
He added that Nana Adu was also invited to the Dominase Police Station to write his statement.
He said he was granted bail subsequently because the police asked him to do so, adding that the following day, he was at home when the Axim District Police Commander called him via telephone and told him that the Western Regional Police Commander said they should invite him to Sekondi.
He said he drove his car to Senkodi and that when he reached Senkodi, the police officers told him that they had information that he had fired a gun at a galamsey site that had wounded some miners.
He said he responded that it was true that he fired a gunshot but he didn’t fire at anybody.
According to Nana Okobeng Amponsah, he showed his licensed gun to the police officers and tendered all the necessary papers covering the gun.
He said when he finished at the Axim District Police Command, the police officers told him that they would invite him anytime they needed him.
He said he was later informed by Axim police that the Western Regional Police Commander had directed that he should be processed for court.
He pointed out that he told the police officers he was ever ready to appear before the court and that anytime they wanted him to appear he would come.
He said he traveled sometime ago and on his return, he was told that the police officer came to leave a note for him.
According to Nana Okobeng, since then, he and his lawyer have appeared at court in Halfassini about four conservative times.
His accusers, he said, have however failed to appear in court since the case started, a situation that has caused the presiding judge to ask the police investigator in the case “whereabouts of the complainants?”
He stated that the CID officers told the judge that they had not seen them in court.
“Today, as l am talking l don’t know where the complainants in the case are,” he noted.
“I called the police investigator via telephone and asked him about the case, and the police responded to me that his Regional Commander has recalled the docket to Senkodi. And that the Commander has not given the court docket to them. And that they don’t even know whether we are going to court or not. l have since not heard anything about the case again,” Nana Okobeng Amponsah explained.
He has therefore called on the general public to disregard the media reports, saying that it is a calculated attempt to destroy his reputation.
