Former President John Mahama is still pained that he got badly exposed by Chairman Wontumi for attempting to gift the Nyinahin Bauxite concession to his brother at a time when he was leaving office, Lawyer Kwame Adom Appiah has said.
Lawyer Adom Appiah has cautioned the former President to get proper education on the issue regarding Akonta Mining Company Limited and move away from making baseless statements that are being spearheaded by agents of propaganda.
According to him if Mr. Mahama wants to nickname President Akufo-Addo as a “clearing agent” then he should be ready to accept the “robbing agent” name some people believe he deserves for attempting to gift a national asset containing bauxite to Ibrahim Mahama.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has exonerated Akonta Mining Company Limited from any wrongdoing, stressing that the Company is not involved in any illegal mining anywhere in Ghana.
“Let me respond briefly to the chairperson on the issue of illegal mining,” President Akufo-Addo remarked after concerns about the menace came to the fore at the 28th National and 16th Biennial Congress of the National Union of Ghana Catholic Diocesan Priests Association held in Koforidua.
“I want to assure him and all of you that Akonta Mining is not engaged in any illegal mining anywhere in Ghana as we speak.
“Further, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has through the agency of the Forestry Commission with the assistance of the military made the effort to cordon off all 294 sites of forest reserves in the country and rid them of illegal mining as we speak.”
President Akufo-Addo was responding to a concern expressed by the chairperson of the occasion, Ing. Ken Ashigbey, regarding Akonta Mining Company Limited’s supposed infraction of the laws to mine in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve in the Western North Region.
But Mr. Mahama made a post on Facebook that reads : That penchant by the president to absolve his appointees and other close associates of any wrongdoing as he has done with the ongoing investigations into the operations of Akonta Mining Company is a serious dent on the already deteriorating image of the Office of the President.
As though proud of that dishonourable badge, ‘the clearing agent’, Nana Akufo-Addo has yet again justified the appropriateness of his nickname with the seeming presidential exoneration of Akonta Mining, a company owned by a member of his political party (NPP) and accused of illegal gold mining in the country’s forest reserves.
However, Lawyer Kwame Adom Appiah reminded Ghanaians that Mr. Mahama has made it clear that he doesn’t ‘gel’ with President Akufo-Addo and his administration because of the bauxite concession that the NPP government took from his brother in 2017.
Daily Guide newspaper once reported that there are unconfirmed claims that the former President has said before he will let his NDC cooperate with the Akufo-Addo administration, especially in Parliament, the Nyinahin Bauxite concession in the Ashanti Region that his NDC administration controversially gave to a company called Exton Cubic, linked to his junior brother, be returned.