The Upper East Regional Minister Stephen Yakubu has refuted claims that he has given concessions or killed businesses belonging to some indigenous people operating at the Gbane mining site in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region to the Chinese mining company Earl International. Apexnewsgh.com report
The Regional Minister was responding to Ngamegbulam Stephen of Apexnewsgh.com in an exclusive engagement on Friday, January 27, 2023, following accusations coming from some aggrieve mining actors and stakeholders in the region.
The Regional Minister said, he has no right as an individual to take anybody’s concession, “do I work with Mineral Commission? Am I the company [Earl International]? The problem is that, this company they are talking about [Earl International], they had a license and this license was signed by then Minister in 2019 and my understanding is that, it has been ratified by parliament and if you go deep into the matter, you would see that people were not even happy that they have given the concession to them”.
“We have a ministry that deals with that. So, it is not the Regional Minister that give that concession to Earl International and it happened in 2019, 2019 was I here? I wasn’t here”. He asked
He further insisted “It wasn’t me who signed the large-scale mining, I wasn’t even here when the large-scale mining was signed. I came in when the small-scale miners were really agitating because in unblocking and giving the small-scale miner’s concession to large-scale mining the documentation is there”.
The Minister pointed out that, when he came into the region, the miners have started negotiating with the company and they were a lot of issues and agitations
“But, the issue was that, how the company is going to compensate them and I even came to meet it when they were negotiating and they were having a lot of problems there and the people were agitating at a time that whatever the company was giving to them, they were not happy with it. They met in Akayet, they met in Alisa Hotel, they met a lot and they were trying to find a common ground in which the company will be able to sort them out”.
“Is the same small-scale miners who came to complain to me, that they are negotiating and they are not seeing their way forward. This same Charles, ask him the number of times he came to my house in the morning here to beg me to try and help so that the company compensates them. Call him and ask him whether he has been here to tell me about this or not. I have documentation that Charles himself has told me to help them. He insisted
“Charles and the company were in court, ask him whether in court there, they didn’t even say that the regional minister was helping to broker the peace deal with them? And because of that, they were actually all the time having to extend the time so that we will be able to look at it. So, if we have looked at it and he is not happy about whatever offer the company is professing, can’t he just say Minister, am not happy about this arrangement, I want to go back to the company to negotiate by my own self, will I stop him doing that? He asked
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