At long last, the most persecuted — and the most celebrated — small-scale miner in Ghana’s Upper East Region, Zongdan Boyak Kolog, more widely known as Polo, has returned to his gold-mining site in Talensi District.
He has suffered for nearly a decade at the hands of a group of local actors who are aggressively backing Earl International Group (Ghana) Gold Limited, a Chinese-owned large-scale mining company formerly called Shaanxi Mining Ghana Limited, to take over a concession he acquired in 2014.
He had never worked at that site since 2023 owing to threats on his life, until now. And no one in the region’s extractive industry has spent more nights in police cells on false allegations coordinated by the local actors and amplified by pro-Shaanxi media outlets than he has.
The sponsored disinformation campaign is not only meant to portray him to the public as a wrongdoer, but also to pressure him into surrendering his 25-acre concession, Nanlamtaaba Enterprise, to Chinese interests.
Polo and Shaanxi have been locked in a civil dispute at the High Court in the region’s capital, Bolgatanga, since 2023 over mining rights to the concession.
In court, Polo produced documents obtained from state regulatory bodies in support of his claim as the lawful owner of the concession. He filed an application for an interlocutory injunction order barring the Chinese company and its associates from the site. And the court, recognising him as a lawful concession holder, granted his request.
He also filed an application through his lawyer, Abena Ankoma Asomaning, for police “protection and assistance” at the site amid threats from his detractors at Gban (also spelt Gbane) where his concession is located. One of the detractors, Naab Ibrahim Awudu, known to many as Gold Baron, was convicted by the Circuit Court in Bolgatanga on Friday, 31 January 2025, for mobilising a mob at Gban to attack Polo.
Noting that Polo was entitled to state protection as a lawful concession holder, the High Court, presided over by Justice Ernest Pascal Gemadzie, ordered the police to provide him with “protection and assistance” as requested.
The Chinese companies’ paramount supporter
Polo is widely loved in Talensi largely because he is humble and shares his money with the needy. He once single-handedly funded work on the long-neglected road to the district hospital in the capital, Tongo.
The entire district has only two paved roads: the road between Winkogo and Tongo, and the potholed stretch between Tongo and Tengzuk. The rest are unpaved and in a state of disrepair. Meanwhile, Chinese mining companies in the district regularly extract gold worth millions of dollars.
Polo’s main opponent in Talensi is the paramount chief of the area, Tongraan Kugbilsong Nanlebegtang. He doubles as the leader of the Talensi Traditional Council and speaks in support of the Chinese companies operating in the district.
Numerous serious human rights violations, associated with Shaanxi in particular, have been perpetrated against many local residents since the Chinese company arrived in the district in 2008. Local observers estimate the death toll linked to Shaanxi’s operation at no fewer than eighty since 2008, with at least twice as many seriously injured and permanently disabled without compensation.
The paramount chief is rarely heard condemning these violations. And with no shortage of backing from him, the Chinese companies continue to expand operations amid strong opposition from some Talensi residents. Critics see his silence on these human rights violations as an enabler of their recurrence even as China continues to smile big at the flow of Talensi gold from Accra to Beijing.
Community members who speak out against him are summoned to his palace and fined, with penalties that generally include money and livestock. These are some of the reasons many residents of Talensi and beyond dislike him and openly criticise him.
After the High Court initially ordered the police on Tuesday, 10 February 2026, to provide Polo with protection and assistance, the paramount chief wrote a letter to the Inspector-General of Police, Christian Tetteh Yohuno, on Tuesday, 3 March 2026, urging the police to withhold the support.
The letter clearly was written in the Chinese company’s interest. The grounds he cited in his letter were widely rejected by observers as “baseless”.
Polo given ‘presidential’ escort
But nobody paid any attention to the ‘mischief’ the chief sought to achieve. The police were focused. The court was focused.
As the chief’s letter sat unanswered, Shaanxi returned to court seeking a stay of execution. In a swift counter, Polo’s lawyers filed an affidavit opposing the motion.
The development halted the police from immediately enforcing the order, pending the judge’s ruling.
On Monday, 8 June 2026, the court dismissed the motion and reaffirmed its earlier directive. The court stressed the need for police to provide “protection and assistance” to the plaintiff, warning that non-compliance would constitute contempt of court.
On Wednesday, 15 July 2026, Polo returned to Gban like a hero. A robust police team went with him to execute the court order. The police were not alone. Soldiers were part of the escort, too.
A number of observers described the scene as “awesome” with the ground trembling under the rumbling wheels of armoured vehicles at the site. They said Polo stood in the midst of police and military personnel like a president on a tour. Some said the Tongraan turned into a very sad man upon learning about this development.
“We heard the Tongo Rana (another way of referring to the Tongraan) became very sad when they told him how Polo was escorted to Gbane. We thought he would just be happy that the two people he sent to Justice [Alexander] Graham are no longer ex-convicts. Whether it is true that the Supreme Court has overturned the High Court judgment in favour of Baare Chief and Tongo Rana’s secretary or not, that is not an issue at all.
“The issue is that Justice Graham did very well and he must be celebrated for boldly exposing the Tongo Rana and blocking his move. We believe the motive for writing a letter to the IGP this year on Polo’s case was the same reason he invited the judge to his palace in 2023, and the good judge punished them for good in a manner nobody will forget till the world comes to an end. We shall always celebrate Justice Graham,” said a Talensi resident, Martin Yin.
Another resident, James Tibil, said: “They claim the Supreme Court has quashed the High Court judgment, but they are not showing us a copy of the judgment. We want to see the judgment. They are only showing us a group picture, and, in my view, they are even afraid to share a video they took in front of the Supreme Court building because the video will expose something they don’t like.”
Residents welcome High Court order with joy
Many Talensi residents also showered praises on Justice Gemadzie for his “firmness, impartiality and professionalism” at the High Court.
They recalled how a former senior High Court judge, Justice Jacob Boon, lost public trust and a Minister of State at the Presidency, Rockson Bukari, resigned over a bribery scandal involving Shaanxi in the region.
They also commended the Upper East Regional Police Command, led by DCOP John Ferguson Dzineku, for executing the High Court order with professionalism, with respect for due process and in a manner that preserved peace in the area.
“The regional commander himself was in Gbane,” said a Talensi resident, Boatbil Awuni. “The police carried out the High Court order with efficiency. They printed copies of the High Court order and posted them physically at several places in Gbane for all to see.”
Awuni added that the police held face-to-face engagements with several community members to inform them of the order, and that among those engaged was Paazie Naab, a local miner also known as “Commando”.
“We are so happy that Polo is back at his site. The law is working. The corrupt liars have started spreading their usual lies through their media gang that there is confusion in Gbane following the High Court order. Those who are not happy that Polo is back are deliberately creating a clash and giving the information to their media gang to give the good High Court and the police a bad name. They and their godfather are so sad because Polo is back.
“They have even told a lie that the Minerals Commission has directed Polo and Earl to stop work. The Minerals Commission only asked them to stay away from a boundary of dispute, not to stop work. The Minerals Commission is the cause of the conflict in Talensi for granting a licence to the Chinese company to mine on the concessions of people who had already acquired their own licences from the same Minerals Commission. This is total nonsense and a recipe for anarchy,” a Tongo resident, Robert Tindanbil, told newsmen.
Shaanxi’s trespass history
Over the past seventeen years, Shaanxi has repeatedly accused individuals of being illegal miners and trespassing on its concession.
The company promotes these accusations through a network of media outlets that rarely report human rights complaints against it, but are quick to do publicity and damage control on its behalf. In those reports, indigenous persons are sometimes shown in handcuffs as culprits, framing the Chinese firm as a victim deserving public sympathy.
However, the same company has itself been accused of trespass by at least five entities in the same district. Four of them — Nanlaamtaba Enterprise, Yenyeya Mining Group, Cassius Mining Company and Mpeligiba Enterprise — have taken Shaanxi to court, and the cases remain unresolved. The fifth, Unique Mining Group, filed a complaint with the Minerals Commission in 2011.
A 2012 Minerals Commission committee report into Unique Mining Group’s complaint found that Shaanxi “had extended its mining operations beyond the authorised areas,” including parts of Unique’s small-scale concession.
Roughly five years ago, after acquiring a 16.02km² large-scale mining lease in Talensi, Shaanxi also took over several existing small-scale concessions, a move some stakeholders have faulted. In 2021, the company paid Unique Mining Group $150,000 in “compensation” for the trespass identified in the 2012 report.
A key member of Unique Mining Group says the payment is inadequate compared to the value of gold allegedly taken during the trespass. He also noted that the cheque was issued without a prior professional assessment of the magnitude of the trespass.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana/West Africa
