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The lack of will on the part of the Minister of Natural Resources Lands and Forestry , Hon Inusah Fuseini, to act on a petition has resulted in the Chinese invasion of mining concessions in Banso in the Western region, this paper has been told.

Reports say numerous petitions coupled with the Minister's own site visit to the area has not yielded results , a situation which has led to the area being destroyed by the Chinese nationals, and nothing has been heard from his office in terms of taking actions on the degraded lands.

The Minister, upon several petitions by the Chiefs and people of the area visited the area in early part of this year to ascertain the level of destruction caused by the Chinese nationals mining in the area.

The Chinese nationals have been mining the concession and destroying water bodies but do nothing to remedy the course of their actions and innocent people drink polluted water as a result of their actions.

According to sources, one Mr. Simon Emerson, who used to be a driver of the late Mark Andrews Bortey and owner of West Star Mining Company Limited, in the latter part of 2002 allegedly forged the title deeds of the company and presented himself as an Attorney of the late Bortey to the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and the Minerals Commission, and has since been allocating the concession to Chinese nationals without the knowledge of the chiefs in the area.

Information gathered by this paper indicates that Mr. Emerson; with the connivance of some armed bodyguards have been terrorizing the chiefs and people on the said land in defiance of the Paramount Chief of Gwira Traditional area, Awulae Nana Ankomah Etuagyan.

The reports indicated that the said land, which covers a total of 105 Kilometer Square, is being mined by small scale miners; particularly Chinese nationals, instead of the purpose for which it was acquired some thirty three years ago.

This paper learnt there are three shareholders of the said concession who are Blue River Star Mining Company limited , owned by the Williams lamert , a white man who is deceased. He had 90 percent shares, with Mark Andrew Bortey 5 percent, and one Emelia Thompson 5 percent, supposedly the girl friend of the late Bortey.

Reports from the area has it that Mr. Emerson has told everybody in the area that, he has bought the regional Police commander, the regional director of Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and the Inspector -General of Police (IGP) to offer him and his armed bodyguards protection to offer protection for the Chinese mining the disputed concession in the Nzema East Municipal Assembly of the Western Region.

Investigations conducted by this paper both in the Western and Greater Accra Region has proved that Mr Emerson got the letter of Attorney by forging the signature of the late Bortey, thereby making himself a director of the company in a letter dated June 14, 2013, which he presented to the Ministry as the owner of the mining concession in the area.

He has however been holding himself a representative of the William Lamert who is also dead and allocating the concession to the Chinese small scale miners.

Mr Emerson has sublet the concession to the Chinese small scale miners and allegedly taken a whopping sum of money amounting to several thousands of Cedis on the blind side of the Mark Andrew Bortey Family in Accra.
And the Chinese miners are busily destroying the area without recourse to all actions taken by the Paramount Chief of the area.

A source told this paper it is an open secret in the area that Mr Emerson has told all the aggrieved persons in the dispute over the mining concession that the IGP is in his pocket.

Meanwhile, despite petition sent to the Ministry of Mines and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) citing Simon Emerson as an illegal owner of Banson concessions, the Ministry and the EPA has defied the concerns raised by the Chiefs and People of Gwira Banso and has gone to the extent of collecting consideration fees from Simon Emerson.

The Minister has also been accused of approving a concession for some Chinese for illegal mining at Diaso near Dunkwa Offinso in the Ashanti Region.