The Accra High Court has adjourned the bail application filed by former New Patriotic Party Ashanti Regional Chairman Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, to Thursday, October 15, 2026, after neither the applicant nor his lead counsel appeared for Wednesday’s scheduled hearing.
The Vaultz News understands that the prosecution team was present and ready to oppose the motion for bail pending appeal, which had been listed for hearing on the morning of August 19.
Both Wontumi and his lawyer, Samuel Atta Akyea of Zoe, Akyea and Co., failed to show up to move the motion, and the court clerk announced that the trial judge would also be unavailable for the remainder of the week.
A Motion That Never Got Moved
The case, titled The Republic v. Bernard Antwi Boasiako @ Wontumi, Kwame Antwi (at large), and Akonta Mining Company Limited, had reached the stage where the applicant’s side needed to formally press the motion before the court could hear opposing arguments.
With counsel absent, that step could not happen, leaving the prosecution’s prepared opposition unheard as well. Deputy Attorney-General Dr Justice Srem-Sai and NPP Director of Legal Affairs Gary Nimako were both present for the brief proceedings, which closed with the adjournment order rather than substantive argument.
Atta Akyea filed the bail motion on August 5, 2026, invoking Section 96(1) of the Criminal and Other Offences (Procedure) Act, 1960 (Act 30), and Section 33(1) of the Courts Act, 1993 (Act 459), asking the court to admit Wontumi to bail while his appeal against conviction proceeds.
The application, supported by an accompanying affidavit, contends that the trial that produced his conviction was, on the face of the record, wrong in law. The State has already signalled it will resist the application when it is eventually heard.
In court filings ahead of the scheduled hearing, the Attorney-General’s office argued that Wontumi’s intended appeal has no reasonable prospect of success and that no special circumstances exist to justify his release pending its determination.
The Conviction Behind the Appeal
Wontumi was convicted on July 20, 2026, by Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay of the High Court’s Criminal Court 4 Division on all six charges brought against him over illegal mining activities on a concession at Samreboi in the Western Region.
He was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment with hard labour, a term that included a separate 20-year sentence for purposely facilitating an unlicensed mining operation on the concession, contrary to Section 99(2)(b) of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703), as amended.
Prosecutors established that Wontumi unlawfully assigned mineral rights on the concession, held by his company Akonta Mining Limited, to two individuals without the required approval of the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, and facilitated mining operations without the necessary authorisation.
He was prosecuted alongside Akonta Mining Limited, listed as the third appellant, and a third accused person, Kwame Antwi, who remains at large. The conviction landed in the middle of Wontumi’s campaign to move from Ashanti Regional Chairman to national chairman of the NPP, a bid the verdict effectively halted.
Wontumi remains in custody at Nsawam Medium Security Prisons and will stay there until the rescheduled hearing date in October.
Whether Wednesday’s absence draws any comment from the court when proceedings resume, or whether it forms part of the State’s argument against granting bail, will become clearer when the motion is finally moved on October 15.
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