An Accra High Court has sentenced Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, to 20 years in prison after finding him guilty of offences linked to illegal mining on the Samreboi concession in the Western Region.
The sentence was delivered on Monday by Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay of the Criminal Division of the High Court. Antwi-Boasiako, widely known as Chairman Wontumi, and his company, Akonta Mining Company Limited, had been convicted on six counts concerning the assignment of mineral rights without ministerial approval and the facilitation of an unlicensed mining operation.
The court also fined Antwi-Boasiako 10,000 penalty units, equivalent to GH¢120,000. A three-year prison term will apply if the fine is not paid, but the default term is to run concurrently with the 20-year custodial sentence. Akonta Mining was fined GH¢180,000 on two counts rather than receiving the same custodial punishment imposed on its controlling director.
The prosecution’s case was that Antwi-Boasiako and Akonta Mining permitted Henry Okoom and Michael Gyedu Ayisi to mine on the company’s concession without first obtaining approval from the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources. The court found that the absence of the required approval was not disputed and that no application seeking it had been made.
Antwi-Boasiako maintained during the trial that Okoom had been allowed onto the land for reclamation and coconut planting, not mining. He said Okoom presented himself as a mine-support services provider and that he did not know him to be a small-scale miner.
The court rejected that explanation. It found that no evidence had been produced to establish Okoom’s claimed reclamation experience. Okoom’s unchallenged testimony was that he mined unworked portions of the concession to recover his costs after funds for the reclamation work were not provided.
Applying principles governing circumstantial evidence, the court concluded that there was no reasonable explanation inconsistent with a finding that Antwi-Boasiako knowingly permitted the mining activity. It also dismissed as an afterthought the suggestion that Okoom was expected to recover his expenditure from the eventual sale of mature coconuts.
The court lifted Akonta Mining’s corporate veil after finding that the company lacked a functioning management and executive board. Justice Kocuvie-Tay held that Antwi-Boasiako was the company’s controlling mind and the de facto holder of the mineral right during the period in which the offences occurred.
Before sentence was passed, defence lawyers led by Samuel Atta Akyea asked the court to impose the statutory minimum of 15 years. They cited Antwi-Boasiako’s cooperation with investigators, attendance throughout the trial, lack of a previous criminal record, family responsibilities and contributions to his community. The court settled on a 20-year term after considering submissions from both sides. The governing law provides a sentencing range of 15 to 25 years for the offences.
The case followed a police anti-illegal-mining operation at the Samreboi concession on April 16 and 17, 2025. Michael Ayisi Gyedu and 28 other people were arrested. Investigators also recovered 25 serviceable excavators, firearms, vehicles and GH¢157,000 in cash.
The prosecution has applied for the forfeiture of items recovered during the operation. The court is expected to decide that separate application in a subsequent ruling.
The forfeiture question is separate from the conviction and sentence already delivered. Until that ruling, the recovered excavators, vehicles, firearms and cash remain subjects of the prosecution’s pending application rather than property finally forfeited by the court.
