High Court hands Wontumi 20-year sentence in Samreboi mining case

The High Court in Accra has sentenced Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, to 20 years’ imprisonment over illegal mining-related offences.

The sentence was delivered on Monday, July 20, 2026, after the court found him and his company, Akonta Mining Limited, guilty on six counts.

The charges included assignment of mineral rights without ministerial approval and facilitating unlicensed mining operations on the company’s concession at Samreboi in the Western Region.

The court, presided over by Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay, held that the prosecution had established that Chairman Wontumi and Akonta Mining permitted Henry Okoom and Michael Gyedu Ayisi to mine on the company’s concession without prior approval from the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources.

Chairman Wontumi was also fined GH¢120,000.

In default, he will serve an additional three years in prison.

Akonta Mining Limited was also fined on two counts.

The court relied largely on circumstantial evidence in reaching its decision.

It held that the absence of ministerial approval was not seriously contested by the defence, especially as no evidence was led to show that the company had applied for or obtained such approval.

Chairman Wontumi had told the court that he only permitted Henry Okoom to reclaim degraded land by planting coconut and not to undertake mining.

He also denied knowing that Okoom was a small-scale miner, saying Okoom had presented himself as a mine support service provider.

The court rejected that explanation.

Justice Kocuvie-Tay held that Chairman Wontumi failed to provide evidence to support Okoom’s alleged experience in land reclamation.

The court also considered Okoom’s testimony that he mined on unmined portions of the concession to recover costs after Chairman Wontumi failed to provide funds for the reclamation work.

That evidence, the court noted, was not successfully challenged.

Relying on the principles on circumstantial evidence in Duah v The Republic, the court found that there was no reasonable explanation inconsistent with the conclusion that Chairman Wontumi knowingly permitted mining on the concession.

The court also dismissed as an afterthought his claim that Okoom was expected to recover his costs from the eventual sale of matured coconuts.

On the role of Akonta Mining Limited, the court lifted the company’s corporate veil after finding that there was no real distinction between the company and Chairman Wontumi in the dealings that led to the offences.

Citing the principles in Morkor v Kuma, the court held that there was no functioning management or executive board acting independently for the company.

Justice Kocuvie-Tay found that Chairman Wontumi was the controlling mind of Akonta Mining and the de facto holder of the mineral right during the period in question.

“The A3’s corporate veil should be lifted as there is no real difference between the two, Chairman Wontumi and Akonta, in relation with dealing with the persons permitted to mine,” the judge said.

“There was no functioning management board and executive management board to deal as a company. All acts were done by Chairman Wontumi, the true de facto holder of the mineral right,” she added.

Before sentencing, lawyers for the convict pleaded with the court to impose the minimum sentence.

The court, however, imposed the 20-year custodial sentence after considering the offences and the circumstances of the case.