Mahama has made me poor – Chairman Wontumi

Ashanti Regional Chairman of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) Bernard Antwi Boasiako aka ‘Chairman Wontumi’ has accused President John Mahama of making him a poor person.

According to him, the President deliberately ensured all sorts of means were applied to cripple his otherwise thriving mining business.

Chairman Wontumi, who is the Managing Director of HANSOL Mining Limited based in the Ashanti Region, in 2013 had his company ransacked by an Inter-ministerial task force made up of security personnel on suspicion that the company had brought in Chinese nationals engaged in illegal mining.

The task force allegedly made away with some valuables including money, gold and any other valuable they could lay their hands on and later burnt the place despite the fact that they saw no foreigner.

He further revealed that they also plundered other containers and its contents “which had nothing to do with the mining activities.

Wontumi recounted the ordeal his staff were subjected to and disclosed that the company had in its possession 500 excavators before the presence of the task force at the premises of the company and its subsidiaries across the country, but later only 200 could be accounted for, some of which were burnt by the task force.

Speaking on Okay FM, Chairman Wontumi stated that the action of the task force, which he believes was politically motivated, has negatively impacted on his finances.

“The Bible says whoever does not work should not eat, so I toiled to make good money. You can check from the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) to see how well my company was doing, and you’ll realize that I used to make a whopping US$ 1million a day and pay US$ 25 million a year to the state.

However, now I’m financially constrained due to what I have suffered but that will never break me. I remain strong and will seriously work to see the NDC leave power next year.”