Civil society organisation Forest Watch Ghana (FWG) has backed a move to legally contest the mining right given Exton Cubic Group Limited to prospect for bauxite in the Tano Offin Forest Reserve.
Exton Cubic’s recent attempt to prospect in the forest reserve has met fierce resistance from the youth, who marched in Nyinahini in the Atwima Mponua District of the Ashanti Region last Tuesday to register their anger.
But Exton Cubic has insisted having license from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources as well as Forestry Commission to mine.
But in a release on Thursday, FWG challenged the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, John-Peter Amewu, “to make public all the necessary documents in connection with the granting of a mining lease to Exton Cubic to mine in the Tano Offin Forest Reserve in spite of all the public concerns raised on the matter in July 2016”.
It also questioned the locus of the Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission to grant permit “for full scale mining in Tano Offin Forest Reserve when his own senior officials have opposed the entry permit for prospecting”.
It called the back-and-forth between the Lands Minister and the Ashanti Region Minister as “a big embarrassment to government”.
FWG revealed how a petition in 2016 against the license to Exton Cubic was ignored by then president, John Dramani Mahama.
It said records available showed that one Michael Mahama, who has 50 per cent shares in Exton Cubic Group, is a close relative of Former President Mahama’s.
It suspected the permits may have been granted as a result of the persons involved.
“We declare our support for the contestation of the granting of this mining right currently at the Supreme Court.”
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