Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, MP for North Tongu, has asserted that the Lands Ministry’s statement regarding the incorporation of Elite Minerals Ghana Limited Company on July 25, 2008, is entirely inaccurate.
He noted that incorporation documents obtained from the Office of the Registrar of Companies confirm that Elite Minerals Ghana Limited was originally incorporated on April 22, 2014.
Additionally, Hon. Ablakwa emphasized that the Lands Ministry’s claim that the company’s license dates back to 2012 is completely false, as Elite Minerals did not exist at that time.
“The Lands Ministry’s claim that the Kwaebibrem concession does not cover a forest area is also false. I attach a copy of the cadastral map and my independent field report of the concession which is anchored on the coordinates made available by the Minerals Commission on the Ghana Mining Repository website. Note that the cadastral map confirms that the area in issue has a forest and multiple water bodies.
“Why is the Lands Ministry maintaining a deafening silence on the politically exposed ownership of Elite Minerals?”
Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
Ablakwa expressed that the pressing concern for many Ghanaians is the government’s apparent failure to address the galamsey crisis.
This failure, he indicated, seems to stem from its impotence and complicity, largely due to the involvement of political heavyweights and influential figures in the environmental destruction associated with small-scale mining.
The MP pointed out that the Lands Ministry cannot claim ignorance regarding the undeniable evidence that the politically exposed directors of Elite Minerals, Alvin Mensah and Awo Mensah, are closely associated and business partners with the presidential daughters.
He further noted that both Awo Mensah and Edwina Akufo-Addo are co-owners of Nsuomnam Limited, which they incorporated on August 6, 2020, and they jointly operate Nsuomnam Restaurant.
Hon. Ablakwa stated that Alvin Mensah, another director of Elite Minerals, is not only a longtime close associate of Edwina Akufo-Addo but also a key figure behind the notorious ambulance heist.
He pointed out that Alvin Mensah is a director of Service Ghana Auto Group Limited, which has been indicted by Ghana’s Auditor-General for its role in the heavily inflated and corrupt US$34.9 million ambulance spare parts scandal.
Ablakwa also pointed out that another company owned by Alvin Mensah, BEFT Engineering Works Limited, was involved in the additional US$54.3 million questionable ambulance procurement.
The astute MP emphasized that the Lands Ministry cannot deny that all active licenses granted to Elite Minerals were issued by Hon. Samuel Abu Jinapor during his tenure as Minister for Lands and Natural Resources under President Akufo-Addo.
Licenses Issued by Hon. Samuel Abu Jinapor Disclosed
Furthermore, Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa highlighted that the licenses issued by Hon. Samuel Abu Jinapor include a gold mining license obtained on March 22, 2024, for a concession in Kwaebibirem, Eastern Region, identified by the license code RML/5/9 Vol. 2, which is set to expire in 2036.
He also noted that a second license, a gold mining license, was issued on November 28, 2023, for a concession in Bonsa, Prestea, and Huni Valley in the Western Region, with the license code ML-2/240, expiring in 2053.
According to Ablakwa, a third license is a lithium and gold prospecting license obtained on July 11, 2023, for a concession in Gomoa Ngyiresi, Ekumfi, and Gomoa West in the Central Region, with the license code PL3/797, which will expire in 2026.
“It is indisputable that Elite Minerals almost secured a fourth license a few months ago to mine salt in the Volta Region but nationalistic and courageous chiefs from the Somé Traditional Council in the Ketu South Constituency issued a strongly worded petition to the Minerals Commission against their gazette notification which successfully thwarted efforts to grant salt concessions in the Volta Region to Elite Minerals.
“I can unimpeachably assert that from the intercepted tax records of Elite Minerals, whereas they have made revenues of an impressive GHC53,884,844.33 between 2021 and August 2024 from their mining operations, they have paid a paltry GHC132,000.00 in corporate income taxes to the state for all these years and after multiple defaults”.
Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
Ablakwa further pointed out that the Lands Ministry is making a disingenuous attempt to deny the facts in its own mining repository, which shows that only 96 licenses were issued between 1988 and 2016, compared to 1,503 issued from 2017 to 2024.
He indicated that it is insufficient for the Lands Ministry to claim that the data available on the Ghana Mining Repository is inaccurate without providing alternative data they consider accurate.
He urged the Ministry for Lands and Natural Resources to refrain from futile propaganda efforts aimed at equating false and fabricated records. Ghanaians are currently facing an existential threat due to the actions of irresponsible miners, whom the Lands Ministry has failed to confront and defeat.
Ablakwa emphasized that the Ministry must fulfill its mandate rather than adopt a posture that makes it appear complicit.
“The Lands Ministry must make a choice in this anti-galamsey war: they are either on the side of the Ghanaian masses fighting for survival or they are on the side of the mining elite such as Elite Minerals who collectively are responsible for our current predicament”.
Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
The MP stated that the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government should stop protecting politically exposed, irresponsible miners who are closely associated with the presidential daughters.
He urged the government to immediately direct the Attorney-General and the Inspector General of Police to halt the persecution and imprisonment of patriotic anti-galamsey protesters.
“It is the galamsey operatives and their defenders who should be in jail, not those who are fighting for our collective survival!” – Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
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