Last week, a civil society organisation named Anchoring Democracy Advocacy Movement Ghana (ADAM-GH) called on the John Mahama administration to set up an independent committee to investigate the Upper East regional police commander and the regional crime officer for reportedly aiding some illegal miners to operate in the Talensi District.
The organisation also demanded immediate interdiction of the regional commander, DCOP Raymond Wejong Ali Adofiem, and the regional crime officer, Chief/ Supt. Reuben Yao Dugah, “to avoid any interference with evidence.”
The demands are premised on a story the organisation shared with journalists about the two police officers at a news conference held on Friday, 14 February 2025, in the region’s capital, Bolgatanga.
In 2020, the erstwhile Akufo-Addo government granted a controversial large-scale mining licence to Earl International Group (Ghana) Gold Limited, a Chinese firm previously known as Shaanxi Mining Company Limited and responsible for the killing of 16 Ghanaians in Talensi in January, 2019.
The foreign company acquired a 16.02km² swathe of land in Talensi, which is about 4,000 football fields combined, for a large-scale gold-mining business. Then, it took over several already-licensed small-scale concessions found on that swathe of land with the aid of some appointees of the former government.
Among the concessions the Asians annexed was Nanlaamtaba Enterprise, owned by Zongdan Boyak Kolog, a Talensi native popularly known as Polo.
Complaint lodged with police
The Chinese company paid $1 million into the GCB bank account of the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council with the account number 901113001415.
That money was offered in “goodwill” to the small-scale miners whose concessions were captured by the foreign company and it was to be shared among them.
The sharing of that money turned into a big mess as several fake mining companies also received their share from the money paid into that government bank account.
A number of the concessionaires were not satisfied with the “goodwill” package. They wanted compensation. Some did not even want to surrender their concessions. But they finally had to give them up after the former government threatened to evict them with military force.
In the midst of this development, Polo officially complained to the Upper East Regional Police Command in 2022 that Earl International Group (Ghana) Gold Limited had taken over his concession without his consent.
In response to that complaint, the regional crime officer reportedly advised Polo to take the matter to court and file an application for an interlocutory injunction order against the company.
Lawsuit and attack on judge
Polo heeded the “advice” and the High Court ‘2’ in Bolgatanga, presided over by Justice Alexander Graham at the time, granted an interlocutory injunction against Earl International Group (Ghana) Gold Limited and four other defendants on Thursday, 23 February 2023.
The other four defendants were: the Minerals Commission; Thomas Wuni Duanab, a former district chief executive (DCE) of Talensi; Elijah Nab Pardnyuun, the sub-divisional chief of Gban, the community where Polo’s concession and the Chinese company are located; and Pardzie Nab, the chief’s young brother better known as “Commando” in the district.
To keep the police in the picture about the court proceedings, Polo’s Nanlaamtaba Enterprise gave a copy of the injunction order to the Upper East Regional Police Command.
Then, two weeks after the court issued the injunction order, the paramount chief of Talensi, Tongraan Kugbilsong Nanlebegtang, sent his own secretary, Richard Sunday Yinbil, and the divisional chief of Baare, Naab Nyarkora Mantii, to the judge.
The purpose was to invite the judge to his palace for an exparte discussion on some Talensi cases the court was handling.
The two men were arrested in the courtroom immediately after delivering the message to the judge in his chambers on Friday, 10 March 2023, for contempt of court. They were convicted on their own plea and sentenced. Many people in the region suspected the Tongraan’s aim was to secretly influence the judge’s decisions on the cases involving some Talensi natives he did not like, including Polo.
Polo’s lawsuit suffered an unexpected holdup as the judge, a few days after Ghanaians praised him nationwide for “exposing” the Tongraan, came under a violent midnight attack at his Bolgatanga residence and fled to the national capital, Accra, for his life.
Return to police headquarters
After the judge fled the region, some illegal miners invaded Polo’s concession and began to work there.
Polo also observed that the Chinese company had resumed its trespass on his concession despite the injunction order.
Polo’s lawyers filed a motion on notice for an order of committal for contempt in court against the Chinese company and its co-defendants.
His enterprise also lodged a petition with the police concerning the continued trespass by the foreign company. And further complaints were lodged with the police that deaths were being recorded at the site through illegal mining activities. The police did not take any action against the illegal miners.
In November 2024, Polo met with the regional police command again and underscored the need for the police to enforce the court injunction order.
The regional crime officer reportedly told Polo in the presence of witnesses: “After going through the injunction, I realised that the judge hurriedly granted the injunction.”
Subsequently, Polo introduced to the regional police command a private security company his firm had engaged to protect his concession against the illegal miners’ invasion.
The regional commander rejected the proposal and gave the security company 24 hours to leave the region. The company complied.
Illegal miners attack Nanlaamtaba Enterprise officials
On Saturday, 25 January 2025, Polo visited his concession with other officials of Nanlaamtaba Enterprise to notify the illegal miners about the court injunction order.
He entreated the illegal miners to respect the court order to avoid the wrath of the law. He assured them that he would employ them to work legally with him on his licensed concession as soon as he resumed work if they so wished. And he also emphasised the need for them to stop their illegal mining activities immediately.
His speech drew applause from the illegal miners for assuring them of jobs and for addressing them in a friendly and polite manner.
While he was interacting with the illegal miners, some men emerged at the scene. Numbering about 20, the men wore aggressive faces.
They confronted Polo, verbally assaulted him and ordered him to leave the site. Nanlaamtaba Enterprise officials identified them as agents of the defendants and their allies.
One of the men had a pistol tucked into his pair of shorts. The handgun was covered by his T-shirt but seen as he repeatedly made gestures of warning with both hands thrown up in the air.
Polo left the scene without returning any abusive word to those men. The following day, he went back to his concession with his co-workers to check if there was still any illegal miner there. He found a remnant there but they were not mining. He interacted with them and left on a black range rover.
Gunshots and arrests
After moving about 100 metres away from the concession, the regional police commander suddenly telephoned Polo and asked where he was.
Polo replied that he was at the mining site and was already on his way back to Bolgatanga. The commander, then, asked him to leave the site at once.
“Okay,” Polo said, and continued moving out of the area.
Moments later, he and his men came under a gun attack. As his car sped from the attack through an untarred road bordered by a bush on both sides, bullets hit the rim of a side window and the rear windshield. Another bullet whistled past the forehead of one of his workers on board the car called Atta Yin and left a long, deep cut above his left eyebrow.
Polo fired some warning shots in self-defence while driving the smashed car at high speed in a desperate effort to take his wounded worker to hospital.
While the car was in motion, another call came from the police commander. He asked Polo where he was. In reply, Polo said some men fired at his car, wounding one of the occupants.
Then, he added that he fired warning shots to scare off the assailants. The call ended.
As the journey continued, the regional commander called again, asking why Polo went to the site to shoot. Then, he directed him to report to the nearest police station. Polo told the commander he was already near Winkogo, a Talensi suburb several metres past the nearest Tongo police station, and said he would take the wounded companion to the Upper East Regional Hospital first before reporting to a police station.
Minutes later, a police squad led by the regional commander himself suddenly emerged on the highway leading to the Upper East Regional Hospital. The squad blocked Polo’s car at the intersection between the regional police headquarters and the Fountain Gate Chapel and redirected the car into the yard of the regional police headquarters.
The commander, then, asked his men to arrest Polo and his colleagues. Everybody on board the vehicle was arrested. Three guns, licensed in the name of Nanlaamtaba Enterprise, were taken from Polo’s company by the police.
Polo and his men were detained in police cells and arraigned before the circuit court in Bolgatanga on Monday, 27 January 2025. The court remanded them for one week, pending the next court appearance on Tuesday, 4 February 2025.
Speech from suspected brain behind attack and bad press
On the morning after the Sunday gun attack on Polo, the Assemblyman for Gaare-Gban, Naab Ibrahim Awudu, who also proudly calls himself Gold Baron, made some revealing remarks on a WhatsApp platform called “Alliance 4 Gbane Development”.
Speaking in the native Talen, Gold Baron cautioned an audience on that platform against revealing in public that they were responsible for chasing “him” away.
“Salam Alaykum. Greetings, everyone. Good morning. I greet the chief of Gban, the four traditional landowners of Gban. You may ask, ‘Who is talking?’ This is Honourable Gold Baron. It is good for me this morning. I want all the youth to bear in mind that all of us should know how to caution our tongues.
“It is possible that some people may come to us in the community this morning or in the afternoon to ask what happened. You should not say you drove him away or threw a stone at him,” he said.
Continuing, he added: “If anyone comes around to ask what happened, just tell them that you were sitting at your base when he came to tell us that he’s coming back to work and that no one uttered a word. If we boast about what we did to him, we would expose ourselves.”
The public would remember that the same Gold Baron was convicted about 3 weeks ago (Friday, 31 January 2025) by the circuit court in Bolgatanga and sentenced to pay a fine or go to jail for 3 months in default for inciting the youth of Gban in 2023 to attack Polo if they spotted him on his (Polo’s) concession in that community. He did not go to jail because he paid the fine.
While Polo and his companions were awaiting their next court day in police custody, a local cabal backing the Chinese companies in the district to abuse the rights of the indigenous people and to take over the district engaged one of its devoted media houses to portray Polo and his companions as criminals to the public and to praise the regional police commander for the arrests.
Those media houses only do stories that are focused on creating and maintaining a positive corporate image for the Chinese companies and their allies. They hardly report the human rights atrocities being perpetrated by the same companies in that disadvantaged district.
Physical assault allegations
According to the civil society organisation, Polo and his men were physically assaulted by police officers under the regional police commander’s instructions at the time of the arrests.
When he and his colleagues appeared in court again on February 4, they were granted bail. Polo lodged a complaint with the police against Gold Baron and those who attacked him.
The police invited Gold Baron and some men Polo also identified among his alleged assailants. But, contrary to what he and his men expected, the police did not detain the suspects as they did to him and his men earlier.
“If Polo had gone to the site to commit any crime, he wouldn’t have disclosed to the regional police commander the road he was using back to Bolgatanga after they attacked him.
“All these developments culminated into our understanding that our concession is being taken over, particularly with the support of the Upper East Regional Police Command,” the organisation said in a statement read at the conference by Naabil Paul Yin.
CSO claims commander, crime officer are on illegal miners’ payroll
The organisation made further claims that the regional police commander and the regional crime officer were being paid secretly by illegal miners to help them prevent Polo from resuming work on his concession.
“We demand immediate and independent investigations instituted either by the President of the Republic of Ghana, the Inspector General of Police or the Upper East Regional Minister, into the circumstances surrounding the attack.
“We also demand the immediate interdiction of the Upper East regional police commander, DCOP Raymond Wejong Ali Adofiem, and the Upper East regional crime officer, Mr Reuben Yao Dugah, to avoid any interference with evidence,” it said.
It also called for the immediate dismissal of the chief executive officer of the Minerals Commission, Martin Kwaku Ayisi, and investigations into how the commission issued multiple licences to different applicants for one concession.
“We also demand the immediate arrest of the former Upper East regional minister, Mr Stephen Yakubu who is also known as Armstrong Akurugu for using the state account in receiving moneys from the Chinese company meant for small-scale miners but which are unaccounted for,” it added.
Reaction from police commander
Media Without Borders contacted the regional police commander and the regional crime officer on Saturday, 22 February 2025, for their sides of the story.
In his response, the regional commander described ADAM-GH’s claims as “a clear case of character assassination.”
He said he did not welcome the members of the private security company Polo engaged to protect his concession because he feared their presence might complicate security matters in the region.
Touching on the concern about the court injunction order, the commander indicated that the police did not enforce it because there was no directive to do so.
“Who directed me to enforce it? Let him show you a court directive that we should enforce. Let him show you a court directive that police should enforce,” he retorted.
He added: “The matter for which we arrested him was that he went and fired a gun illegally, endangering lives. It is the matter for which we arrested him.”
Asked why the police had failed to arrest and prosecute Pardzie Naab (Commando) after he was seen in a video clip illegally firing eleven shots from a pistol in Talensi, the commander told this author that the case had not come to his notice.
“Who reported it to me? I wasn’t here when it happened. Since I came here, if you shoot, I will go after you. Is that not what I’m doing in Bawku? You shoot, I will go after you. Is that not what I’m doing in Bolga?”
The commander also stated that Polo’s claims— that he only fired warning shots in self-defence when he came under a gun attack— could not be true.
“What does he mean by warning shots? You pick a gun from your house, go to a place you claim is your concession in the night. Why is it that when he was going he didn’t inform the police? He didn’t tell the police that he foresaw danger,” he said.
Comments from crime officer
On his part, the regional crime officer said he did not ask Polo to apply for injunction. He said he only advised him to file a suit if he believed he owned the concession despite the state having given some concessions including his own to a large-scale miner.
“I don’t know where from the twist that I said the judge hurriedly gave the injunction,” he countered.
“By the way, what is the meaning of being on the payroll of another person? I hope those who are saying so have evidence to prove same.”
Several observers and residents of the region say the gunshot wound Polo’s worker sustained in his head as well as the damage done to the side window of his car and windscreen from behind are enough evidence that he actually was attacked and the gunshots he fired may only be for warning purposes and self-defence reasons.
“If Polo was not actually attacked, who then shot his own worker in the head? Would the gentleman (Polo) shoot his own brother? We are told his guns were duly licensed for him as a miner and, so, what would be wrong if he used the same licensed guns to defend himself under an evident attack?
“Have the police actually shown any interest in arresting the illegal miners who are said to be working at that site in Talensi as expected of the police? This matter must be investigated thoroughly. We are filing a very strong petition very soon from our office to the IGP, the Interior Minister and the Presidency on this matter,” said a human rights and good governance advocate, Dr. Albert K. Kwarteng.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana
