Some small scale miners in the Upper East Region has called on government to freeze an account created by the Upper East Regional coordinating Council. The account is said to be holding monies meant to compensate small-scale miners in the region.
At a press conference in Bolgatanga, the acting chairman of the small-scale miners, Mr. Abdulai Amaligo told the press that government should consider freezing the bank account created by the Regional Coordinating Council to receive compensation monies meant for all small-scale miners who had their concessions at the Gbani site, a suburb of the Talensi district.
“One thing we want to tell him is that , he is not above the law, they should investigate him and the account of the Regional Coordinating Council because there are a lot of things going down there, we are talking about our concession and as they are bringing the military to come and brutalize us and fill our pits”.
Abdulai Amaligo added that the agreement between Stephen Yakubu, Thomas Doanaba Wuni and Robert Tampoare Boazor with the Shaanxi now Earl International as small-scale miners and that the said agreement has been hidden from other miners. “so they are pleading with the government and the minerals commission to help us settle the issue”.
Christopher Asima, a spokesperson for Unique mining told wordnews that per their investigations, an amount of one hundred and fifty million dollars has been paid to upper east regional minister Stephen Yakubu also known as Amstrong Akurugu.
“It came to light that the said amount was paid to the Upper East Regional Minister, Hon. Stephen Yakubu, who is also known to his peers as Hon. Armstrong Akurugu. The money was paid to him by Earl International Group Ghana Gold Limited for onward disbursement to the members of the group. But surprisingly, the Regional Minister paid the money to his friend Robert Boazor Tampoare in person without our consent. Although Robert Boazor Tampoare was a member of our group at the time, he did not disclose to the other members of the group he had taken money (150,000 US dollars) from the Regional Minister on our behalf”.
They also claimed that their sources revealed that Mr. Robert Tampoare lodged the money into his personal account with the Zenith Bank, Bolgatanga branch.
Thomas Wuni, the district chief executive for Talensi confirmed that a meeting was organized between Stephen Yakubu, the Minerals Commission , as well some staff of the assembly and the small scale miners.
He however denied the allegations of smuggling some ghost names into the list of beneficiaries of small scale miners of the district but confirmed
the opening of an account for their royalties to be paid into which he is said there was nothing wrong with the opening of such account to receive royalties for the miners.
Robert Tampoare Boazor, a member of the Unique mining group denied the allegations and claimed that the share the trespass monies he received with all his members was Gh¢400,0000 was giving to Buyak Poloo and Gh50,000 given to the rest of the members whom he claimed did not contribute enough to the realization of the money.
Source: mywordfmonline.com/ Gaspard Ayuureneeya