Okobeng Mining CEO Threatens To Sue Editor Of The Anchor Newspaper & Others
He pointed out the Anchor newspaper also published that the gold mining activities of Okobeng Mining Company is terrible which situation is currently polluting the River Akonbra on the blind side of the Anti-galamsey Military Task-Force and the state mining regulatory institutions.
Freeman Koryekpor 
THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE Officer of Okobeng Mining Company, Nana Okobeng Amponsah, has threatened to file a defamatory case against various media houses including The Anchor newspaper for publishing series of lie and labelious stories against him that he has fired gun shots at two key small scale miners at the illegal gold site at Gwira-Ampasie in the Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira Municipality of the Western Region.
He pointed out the Anchor newspaper also published that the gold mining activities of Okobeng Mining Company is terrible which situation is currently polluting the River Akonbra on the blind side of the Anti-galamsey Military Task-Force and the state mining regulatory institutions.
"I want to set the records straight today that these allegations leveled against him and my company are completely false, unfounded and cooked up. Having being the loyal and law abiding citizen who has dully registered and secured the certified necessary legal licenses or documents from the various state mining regulatory institutions including the Minerals Commission and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and have been mining gold resource for the past twenty-five (25) years in Ghana, l would be the last person to do something to destroy River Akonbra and water bodies. I respect the water bodies.
“I dare anyone who knows the concession to go and verify how my company carries out responsible gold mining activities and see if its mining activities are destroying water bodies as being claimed by my detractors,” Nana Okobeng added.
Speaking in an interview with some journalists on Thursday, December 22, 2022, the seasoned miner stated that the allegations are false and a deliberate attempt by his critics to score points.
According to him, he legally secured various licenses from the Minerals Commission and Environmental Protection Agency to mine gold at Dominase, and that his company operates in the manner prescribed in the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703.)
Nana Okobeng pointed out that those polluting the Akonbra River and other water bodies are the illegal small scale miners, who are indiscriminately mining gold resources from communities such as Bamiankor, Ayinase, Amgbasea, Akango, Dualle and Akosono in the Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira Municipality.
He stated that the people in these areas can testify that his company’s activities do not contribute to the pollution of the Akonbra River and other streams and rivers in the area.
“When you go to Dominase in the Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira Municipality, the people will tell you I am against the pollution of water bodies by the galamseyers. I save water bodies from the illegal miners. I understand mining because that is where I’m coming from,” he stated.
He noted that he supported the government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in fighting against illegal small scale mining by leading an anti-galamsey military task-force to some illegal concessions to clamp down on the activities of illegal miners in the Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira Municipality.
“I’m serving this notice to each and every one that my concession within Dominase is not responsible for the pollution of water bodies or the Akonbra River as far as mining activities are concerned in the area.
“Nobody should dare mention my name or the name of my company on any media platform or publication that we have polluted water bodies because there would be dire consequences for those who will try to tarnish my company’s name again in this regard,” he warned.
He, therefore, cautioned media practitioners to be vigilant and do proper fact-checking with their informants before writing any false story against him and his company again.
According to him, he has already consulted his lawyers and that they are preparing a legal suit to serve the management of The Anchor newspaper and these media houses for their role in spreading the false claims against him without cross-checking from him.
"I am not against the media practitioners or house for doing their jobs but they must stop publising one sided stories in the connection of the gun fire shot at Gwira-Ampasie," Nana Okobeng Amponsah issued these foregoing warnings.
The words complained off are absolutely false, products of the newspaper and its informat s’ imagination and were mischievously designed by them to disparage him, stain his reputation, court public disaffection for him and to bring him into abhorrence in the eyes of right-thinking members of the public and the global community,” Nana Okobeng Amponsah said.
Nana Okobeng Amponsah maintained that his reputation has been “violently damaged.”
According to him, The Anchor newspaper has not given him a chance to respond to the allegations.
Fuming with anger, the seasoned miner had therefore given a fourteen (14) working day ultimatum to the management or the Editor of The Anchor newspaper to, immediately come up with retraction of the publication and tender unqualified apology to him.
Speaking further, Nana Okobeng Amponsah has, therefore debunked media reports which goes viral on the social and traditional media platforms that he has fired gun shots at two key small scale miners at the illegal gold site at Gwira-Ampasie in the Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira Municipality of the Western Region.
While admitting that he fired a gun, the seasoned miner explained that 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.
Nana Okobeng Amponsah, their visit to the site 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 who has over two hundreds workforce in Ghana 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 the River Ankonbra.
He noted that he has become a prime target of attack by thousands of illegal small- scale miners, popularly known as galamseyers, who are indiscriminately mining gold from communities including Bamiankor, Ayinase, Gwira-Ampasie, Akango, Dualle and Akosono 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.”
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.
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 cover 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 said the police officer invited "me to report to the Dominase Police Station the following day.
He said when he reported to the station, he wrote his statement about what had happened when he went to the illegal mining site at Gwira-Ampasie.
He added that Nana Adu was also invited to the Dominase Police Station to write his statement.
According to him, the police officers told me that “l should get someone to administer the bail for me.”
He said he was granted bail and they left there, adding that the following day while he was home, the Axim District Police Commander called him via telephone and told him that the Western Regional Police Commander was inviting him to Sekondi.
He said he drove his car to Senkodi and when he reached Senkodi, the police officers asked him that they had information that he had fired a gun at a galamsey site which incident wounded some miners.
He said he responded that it was true that he fired gunshots but he didn't shoot at anybody.
According to him, after he left the Senkodi District Police Command, the police officers at Axim also invited him to come to the station.
He indicated that the police officers at Axim also asked him that they had had information that he fired gunshots at galamsey site and that where was his gun.
According to Nana Okobeng Amponsah, he showed them his licensed gun to the police officers and tendered in all the necessary documentary papers covering the gun.
He noted that when he was done at the Axim District Police Command, the police officers told him that they would invite him anytime they needed him, saying that “I left the station to my house.”
He said when he got home, police officers at Axim called to inform him that the Western Regional Police Commander had directed that they should process him before court.
He said he told the police officers he was ever ready to appear before any court.
He said he was away for sometime, and after coming back he was told that some police officers came to serve him in his absence a writ of summons.
According to Nana Okobeng Amponsah, after showing up in court in Half Assini for about four conservative times, those who were making the noise of claiming to have sustained gunshot wounds were nowhere to be found.
That situation, he said, informed the decision of the presiding judge to ask the police investigator about the whereabouts of the complainers.
He stated that the CID officers told the judge that they had not seen them in court.
Against this backdrop, he called on the general public to disregard the media reports that he shot miners at Gwira-Ampasie, saying that they were all calculated attempts to destroy his reputation.
