The Acting Public Relation Officer (PRO) of Yenyeya Mining Enterprise, a mining firm operating in the Gbane Community in Talensi District of the Upper East Region Jarvis Avoka has accused the Upper East Regional Minister Stephen Yakubu of denying them (Yenyeya) the opportunity to addressed some concerns during the Sector Minister’s Visit to the region. Apexnewsgh.com reports
The Sector Minister for Land and Natural resources Samual Abu Jinapor in a one-day visit to the Upper East Region mining site in Gbane community where he met with the officials of Earl International Group (GH) Gold Limited.
However, his visit has brought some level of dissatisfaction to officials of Yenyeya Mining Enterprise who were not excited with the treatment offered them by the Regional Minister and some other concerns such as not receiving any formal letter regarding the visit of the Sector Minister.
Yenyeya also described the Regional Minister’s action of leading the sector minister to the site in dispute as an illegality.
“That morning, my boss informed me that the minister is coming and my worry was that, whether we were invited? NO. No one gave him any formal notice that the sector Minister was visiting. So, we just went there and sat. Then they said, the minister was coming at 12 pm. If you check my Facebook wall you will see that i made a post when I saw Earl International Group (GH) Gold Limited welcomes you Hon Samuel Abu Jinapor Minister for Lands and Natural Resources and your entourage to our operation site Gbane that, “…the matter is in court. Lawyers for the Chinese prayed the court for an out-of-court settlement. The presiding judge granted this request. Discussions commenced with the Upper East Regional Minister as the key arbiter. ….
This letter that the Minerals Commission wrote with the keyword “demobilize” was recently published…
Today, the key arbiter is leading the Sector Minister to visit the same site amidst funfair to validate the illegality and arm-twist the two local small-scale mining license holders? …..
Impunity? Disregard for our laws and legal processes court authority?” Yenyeya Acting PRO Jarvis Avoka complained on his Facebook wall, the day of the Sector Minister’s visit to Gbane.
He also raised another concern, that the Regional Minister who happens to be the arbitrator between them and the Chinese people denied officials of Yenyeya the opportunity to air their concerns during the visit of the sector minister, hence allowed officials of Earl International to make a presentation as they claimed, the 38 small scale miner involved have been settled and compensated and there were no issues on the ground.
“When the Sector Minister came, he just addressed the house and said that he has no time to go round the facility as they initially planned because of time, he would want to go. So Maxwell Wooma made a Presentation and afterward, my boss (Charles) wanted to say something and the Regional Minister said, due to lack of time, he should rather come to the residency”. Jarvis told Apexnews Gh
However, when Apexnewsgh.com contacted Regional Minister Stephen Yakubu on his part of the story he said, Mr. Charles Ndabon did not catch the eye of the Sector Minister for Lands and Natural Resources Samuel Abu Jinapor. But he later realized that Mr. Ndabon wanted to say something and he quickly informed him to come to the RCC where the Sector Minister was supposed to meet with some other small-scale miners and that was when they were about leaving the site.
“After going around Cardinal Resources, we were very tired. So, the Minister told me, we are going to spend only 15 minutes there. So, Maxwell, their PRO got up and introduced themselves, they even introduced Charles he was there and they introduced him and the Minister wanted to leave and then Maxwell begged and said he wanted to explain a few things to the sector minister. So, we all waited and Maxwell put up this thing and we all listen, after that when we are to go, Charles then wanted to ask a question and the Sector Minister didn’t catch his eye. So, I realized he wanted to ask a question, then I asked him to come to the RCC”.
Responding to the issue of not giving formal notice to Yenyeya Mining Enterprise regarding the coming of the sector minister, the Minister said, is not his responsibility to inform the miners about the Sector minister’s visit and must not be blamed for that. He said that is the job of the Mineral Commission and Ministry.
“Am i the one who is supposed to inform them? Is it not Mineral Commission? If the Ministry is coming to meet people, is it not the Ministry who should do all these things. So, wherever they heard and they came to the meeting what was wrong? If they didn’t catch the eye of the Minister and I signal him that, there is another meeting, that you can come there and ask your questions, why didn’t they come? Because I was only doing them a favor. I am very surprised, Charles should be the last person….Because this world is not a fair place, because when you are trying to do the right thing for people, people don’t like it that way. Because my brother, I brought these things on the table and before I came, none of these were on the table. Upper East Regional Minister responded
More to come…
Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana/Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen
