Legal practitioner and governance scholar, Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare, popularly known as Kwaku Azar, has argued that the legal proceedings leading to the conviction of Ashanti Regional New Patriotic Party (NPP) Chairman, Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, are not politically motivated but a demonstration of the rule of law.

According to him, two independent High Court decisions delivered seven years apart reached similar conclusions on the activities of Wontumi and Akonta Mining, reinforcing that the matter is one of legal accountability rather than political persecution.

In a Facebook post shared on July 23, 2026, Kwaku Azar dismissed attempts to portray the case as an attack on Wontumi based on politics or ethnicity.

"This is not political persecution. It is not tribal cleansing. It is the law doing what it is supposed to do: protecting the country's environment from ecocide and holding those responsible accountable," he indicated.

He noted that the 2026 criminal court found that Wontumi and Akonta Mining allowed another person to use a mining concession without the approval of the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources.

It also found that Wontumi deliberately facilitated unlawful mining, and established that he was the owner and the ‘directing mind’ of the company.

Kwaku Azar further pointed to a 2019 civil court judgment, which found that Akonta Mining's licence was for prospecting rather than mining, yet actual mining was taking place without authorization.

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According to him, the court also concluded that Wontumi was the owner and directing mind of the companies involved in the illegal mining operation.

Kwaku Azar said the civil court further found that Chinese nationals were being used without adequate lawful authority and that the mining activities caused significant environmental damage, including pollution of the Tano River.

He stressed that these conclusions were reached independently by the courts and not by politicians or social media commentators.

"For the avoidance of doubt, and without malice toward anyone, here is what two independent High Courts, one civil (2019) and one criminal (2026), found," he stated.

He added that the consistency between the two judgments should dispel claims that Wontumi's conviction was politically engineered.

"These are not the findings of politicians or social media commentators. They are the findings of two independent courts, seven years apart," Kwaku Azar said.

Kwaku Azar also criticized attempts to revise the narrative surrounding the case, saying the public should rely on judicial findings rather than political rhetoric.

"In this polity, memories are often short. Some rewrite history. Others even worship ecociders," he noted.

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