General News of Tuesday, 22 August 2017

Source: mynewsgh.com

I’m not engaging in illegal mining of bauxite at Nyinahin - Ibrahim Mahama

Ibrahim Mahama Ibrahim Mahama

Businessman, Ibrahim Mahama has denied reports he is engaging in the illegal prospecting and mining of bauxite at Nyinahin in the Atwima Mponua District of the Ashanti Region.

According to him, Exton Cubic Group Limited which legally acquired the Nyinahini Bauxite concession as far back as August 14, 2013, had engaged Engineers and Planners (E&P), a company owned by Mr. Mahama, to use its equipment to undertake a prospective service.

In a statement issued and signed by Rafik Mahama- Communications Aide it stated “:“It came to us as a surprise when without any lawful excuse, the District Chief Executive of Atwima Mponua District Assembly and the Ashanti Regional Minister caused the trucks of the subcontractor to be impounded in the center of the Nyinahin township.”

“After going through all the laid down procedures required by law, Exton Cubic Group Limited was granted a mining lease for the Nyinahin Bauxite Deposit by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources on the 29th of December 2016. This mining lease was registered at the lands commission of Ghana on the 9th of January 2017.”

Read full text of response below:

Exton Cubic Group Limited has refuted claims that, the company in collaboration with Ibrahim Mahama, are engaging in illegal mining activities at the Nyinahin bauxite concession and were thus run out of the concession.

“We wish to state emphatically that the said publications are false and a total misrepresentation of the actual facts of the issue. We wish to state unequivocally that Exton Cubic Group has never engaged in any illegal mining activity in Ghana,” Exton said in a statement.

Exton Cubic Group clarified that the vehicles of one of its sub-contracts, E&P, were impounded along with the “unlawful detention of our officers by the Nyinahin Police on the 20th of August 2017.”

The mining company had engaged Engineers and Planners (E&P), a company owned by Mr. Mahama, to use its equipment to undertake a prospective service.

Operations at Nyanihin lawful

The company stressed that it had legally acquired the Nyinahini Bauxite concession as far back as August 14, 2013.

“It came to us as a surprise when without any lawful excuse, the District Chief Executive of Atwima Mponua District Assembly and the Ashanti Regional Minister caused the trucks of the subcontractor to be impounded in the center of the Nyinahin township.”

“After going through all the laid down procedures required by law, Exton Cubic Group Limited was granted a mining lease for the Nyinahin Bauxite Deposit by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources on the 29th of December 2016. This mining lease was registered at the lands commission of Ghana on the 9th of January 2017.”

The company is yet to receive any official communication from the authorities concerned as to why our E&P’s trucks and equipment have been impounded.

Exton Cubic Group’s lawyers are in talks with police in the area over the issue “and it is our hope that the police will release the impounded trucks as soon as possible to forestall any further pecuniary losses to us.”

Statement from the group signed by Lawyers of Exton Cubic group Limited

Statement shared by: Rafik Mahama- Communications Aide.

Click "Photos" to see the statement.