I will never forgive Mahama – Chairman Wontumi

Bernard Antwi Boasiako, Chairman of the Ashanti Regional NPP, says he will never forgive former president John Mahama for ordering the seizure and burning of his mining equipment in 2013.

Antwi Boasiako who is popularly referred to as Chairman Wontumi, speaking on Good Evening Ghana show on Metro TV insisted that no amount of apology or compensation would make him forget the pain he felt on that fateful day.

Recounting how the former regime led by then National Security Coordinator, Lt. Col. Gbevlo Lartey (Rtd.) unleashed terror on him and thousands of his workers at a mining concession at Samanboi in the Western Region, he said, “I was on my way to my company, Hansol Mining, one day when I received a phone call from an unknown number.

“The caller told me President Mahama wanted to have a meeting with me on that same day, but I declined as I was on my way to attend to some pressing matters at the site.

“But the same number called for the second time and I was told to meet the president at Tamale in the Northern Region, so I agreed to be in that meeting. I remember vividly that the meeting was held on a Sunday”.

Wontumi disclosed that during the deliberations with the former president and his entourage, they impressed upon him to admit that his company was illegally prospecting for gold – a suggestion he fiercely resisted.

“They wanted to force me, so I admit that my company had no license to engage in the large-scale mining we were engaged in, but I showed them all the necessary documentations, and that there was no way I was going to admit I had no license to mine.

“I made my case and pointed out to them that I was never going to succumb to their whims and caprices,” he explained.

The NPP Chairman divulged that despite producing all the necessary documentations to show that his company was doing business legitimately, the former president still ordered operatives of the national security to confiscate his mining equipment and succeeded in closing it operations.

He said more than 5000 people lost their jobs after security operative unlawfully raided the company.

“I felt a lot of pain and I will never forgive Mr Mahama,” he retorted.