The Anchor And The Inquisitor Newspapers In Big Trouble! -As Okobeng Mining CEO Sues Two Media Companies For Defamation
He sued the two private media companies operating in Accra for defamation after they published that Nana Okobeng Amponsah and his company were involved in illegal mining activities which had polluted River Akonbra.
Freeman Koryekpor 
THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE Officer (CEO) of Okobeng Mining Company, Nana Okobeng Amponsah, has finally sued The Anchor and The Inquisitor newspapers.
He sued the two private media companies operating in Accra for defamation after they published that Nana Okobeng Amponsah and his company were involved in illegal mining activities which had polluted River Akonbra.
Also cited on Wednesday December 28, 2022 lawsuit filed on behalf of Nana Okobeng Amponsah by the legal counsel, Gaisie Zwennees Hughes & Co are the two Editors-In-Chiefs of The Anchor and The Inquisitor newspapers.
The two private media companies have also published series of lies and libelous stories against the seasoned miner that he has fired gun shots at small scale miners at the illegal gold site at Gwira-Ampasie in the Evalue-Ajomoro-Gwira Municipality of the Western Region.
The publications in these newspapers, the Chief Executive Officer of Okobeng Mining Company deems defamatory hence his current decision to sue his accusers/ defendants in the High Court in Takoradi in the Western Region.
Nana Okobeng Amponsah, the journalist was reliably informed wants the persons and two media companies he has sued to retract and apologize for their role in spreading the false claims which has destroyed his hard won reputation.
Nana Okobeng Amponsah, according to information available to the journalists stated the words complained off are absolutely false, products of the defendants’ imagination and were mischievously designed by the defendants 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.
The Ghanaian business mogul,the journalist gathered maintained that his reputation has been “violently damaged” and stated the two media companies did not give him a chance to respond to the allegations.
It would be recalled that Nana Okobeng Amponsah, has debunked media reports which have gone viral on social and traditional media platforms to the effect that he has fired gunshots at small scale miners at an illegal gold mining site at Gwira-Ampasie.
"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.
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.
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 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 these 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 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.
He indicated that looking at the level at which the miners were pelting stones at them, he managed to fire warning shots into the air, ostensibly to scare them from throwing more of the stones.
He stated that after he had fired the warning shots, he realised the illegal miners were still throwing more stones at them.
He narrated that Nana Adu then asked him that they should leave the place since the miners were still indiscriminately throwing the stones at them.
According to him, they left the place and when he reached home in the evening, he had a telephone call from one of the police officers from Dominase Police Station, indicating that someone came to lodge an complaint against "me that l had come to fire gunshots at people at a mining site at Gwira-Ampasie.
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 Sekondi and when he reached Sekondi, 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 Sekondi 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
