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Owner of Akonta Mining Limited, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, has vowed to protect the Nimiri Forest Reserve from the operations of galamsey miners.
 
“I applied for Nimiri forest which is at Western North . . . I don’t have a lease there, but the truth is that they have gazetted the place for me,” Chairman Wontumi who is also the Ashanti Regional Chairman for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) said.
 
In 2013, he recounted that some illegal miners invaded his mining site and left the place in a deplorable state forcing him to use his own money for reclamation.
 
Chairman Wontumi, however, stated on NEAT FM’s morning show, 'Ghana Montie' that he is yet to get a license to mine in the Nimiri forest but has the forest gazetted to his company- Akonta Mining Limited.
 
“Now that I have the place gazetted to me if I am unable to protect the place from the illegal miners, they will let me use my money to recover the land,” he said.  
 
The NPP Regional Chairman disclosed that as soon as he started formalizing things to move to the Nimiri forest, Samartex wrote a letter to his company through their lawyers that they won’t allow him to work at the place.
 
“I also replied to them through my lawyers and the issue is at the Sekondi Court and we are expecting judgment,” he said.