The Director and shareholder of Northern Ashanti Mines, Fredrick Okine, has described the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat’s (NAIMOS) operation to remove workers from the company’s mining concession at Konongo on Thursday, October 22, as aggressive.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Tuesday, October 27, Mr Okine alleged that the team arrived with dogs and cocked guns and gave the company’s approximately 400 workers just two and a half hours to vacate the site.
Asked by host Bernard Avle whether NAIMOS was behind the operation, Mr Okine answered in the affirmative.
“Our understanding is that they are from NAIMOS, they were led there by the regional office of the minerals commission. Not only was it a Rambo-style takeover, they came in with cocked guns, kicking dogs, asking us to move out within two and a half hours,” he said.
He added that military personnel had been stationed around the mine, prompting management to urge workers not to resist the operation to avoid possible bloodshed.
“Their appearance was as if they had been given an order to shoot anybody who obstructed,” Mr Okine alleged.
The operation follows the termination of Northern Ashanti Mines’ mining lease over alleged breaches that the company had reportedly failed to remedy.
The company has since filed an application for an injunction seeking to restrain the state from taking over the concession pending the determination of a judicial review application challenging the termination of its lease.
