President John Evans Atta Mills
Snippets of information reaching TODAY point to the fact that Newmont Mining Corporation is under intensive pressure to abandon its proposed Akyem Project which would allow surface mining in the Ajenua Bepo Forest Reserve in the Birim North of the Eastern Region.
The paper can state on authority that the United Nations (UN) is highly vexed about the mining company’s intended gold mine project, and in a letter has asked the government of Ghana and Newmont to respond to questions on why surface mining should be permitted in a forest reserve of such biodiversity importance.
Although Newmont has been granted environmental permit for the project, it was gathered from government sources that the UN is pressurizing the NDC government to do all it can to stop the Akyem Project.
The UN’s intervention, the paper gathered stems from the fact that the project if carried out would destroy the forest reserve which climatic conditions favour a lot of farmers in the district, and also displace and impoverish many of the local indigenes.
According to our findings, the UN cannot understand why government would allow mining in the Ajenua Bepo Forest knowing very well of the effects the mining would have on biodiversity and the climate in the area as well as the destruction of important heritage sites.
In an interview, the Regional Manager, Communications, Newmont Ghana, Ms Adiki O. Ayitievie, admitted that even though her outfit has received the said UN letter, it did not come directly from the UN but from the government which then forwarded it to Newmont to respond to allegations made in respect of the Akyem Project.
“We got a letter but it didn’t come directly to us, it went to the Ghana government. And the Ghana government also sent it to us because at the end of the day the issues or allegations were about our company, and the Ghana government came to ask us what our response was,” said Ms Ayitievie.
She disclosed that Newmont Ghana has already responded to the allegations that were contained in the letter and does not think the UN’s letter would pose any threat to the project.
The paper learnt that the UN is very much worried about why Ghana continues to give away easily its rich forest reserves without taking steps to protect such rich reserves.
Meanwhile, sources close to Newmont Ghana head office in East Legon have hinted that the UN’s interest in the matter has the potential of ensuring that the project is not implemented.
Following the UN’s intervention, TODAY has been privy to information that a consultative meeting was convened by Newmont officials on 4th August 2009 at the palace of the New Abirem chief, which brainstormed on how to deal with the UN as well as the advocacy NGOs. That meeting was also attended by chiefs, youth and opinion leaders in the area.
According to sources at the meeting, it (the meeting) mapped out a strategy to discredit NGOs, especially Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM), who was at the forefront of campaigning against the Akyem Project.
Ms Ayitievie however denied the claim that Newmont called for a meeting on the 4th August 2009 to try and discredit advocacy NGOs.
“…That is not true and so far as I am concerned Newmont hasn’t convened any meeting on the 4th August 2009 to discredit NGOs,” she categorically stated.
The source hinted that among the strategies outlined at the said meeting included the signing of a petition drafted by Newmont officials and organising demonstrations against some NGOs campaigning against the Newmont Akyem Project.
At the said meeting, the source also indicated that Newmont officials informed the chiefs and youth that two NGOs: WACAM and FoodFirst International Action Network (FIAN) had petitioned the UN to stop the mining project.
That news, according to our source charged the youth who at the end of the meeting swore to deal with any NGO that would dare prevent them from gaining employment from the project.
TODAY can also confirm that in the course of planning against the NGOs, news got to the chiefs, Newmont officials and the youth who had gathered at the palace of the New Abirem chief that a Whiteman and a Ghanaian from FIAN were interacting with some farmers in Yayaaso, a community in the Birim North District.
When this information got to the chief of New Abirem he immediately dispatched emissaries who went to Yayaaso in vehicles. The source continued that at the time that the chief’s team arrived, an old lady who had a lot of complaints against Newmont had taken the two officials to her farm near the Ajenua Bepo Forest Reserve to show them the destruction caused to her farm by the mining company.
The two officers were later summoned to the palace of New Abirem chief to meet the crowd that had obviously been charged by negative statements against WACAM and FIAN.
The paper was reliably informed that the two officials and the old lady from Yaayaso were subjected to intensive ordeal of interrogation, amidst hooting and intimation to force them to apologise for visiting the farm of the old lady without seeking permission from the chiefs.
And it was during this stage that some chiefs and youth made unprintable comments and threatened the NGOs who according to them were not helping them so far as the project.
When our reporters asked whether such an incident has come to the attention of Newmont, Ms Ayitievie insisted that her outfit has not received anything of this sort.
By Ato Keelson & Stephen Darko