Re: We’ve not approved any protest against Mining Firm - Gbane Traditional Council

We the members of the Gbane Traditional Area wish to unequivocally state that the actions of some members of Gban who are holding themselves as chief, elders and opinion leaders of the Gbane Traditional Area are disturbing and shameful.

The self-acclaimed chief, Elijah Nabil, is neither the chief of Gban nor the acting chief of Gban. The mere fact that his elder brother, Nab Yeng Volbazaah, who has been at large three weeks after his installation as chief and has not returned from exile, does not give room to any of his brothers to claim the chiefdom of Gban.

We hereby call on the general public to disregard all publications, engagements and transactions on behalf of the Gban community endorsed by the self-professed chief as null and void and for that matter he does not represent the Gban community. It is our request that Elijah Nabil, being seen acting on behalf of the chief, should cease holding out himself as acting on behalf of the chief, Nab Yeng Volbazaah, and to report to the Tongo Rana, the Paramount Chief, that the long absence of the newly installed chief is causing more harm than good to the community and as such should call him to return to take up the responsibilities for which he was installed.

Unfortunately, in an attempt to react to a statement made by Tii-roug Zumah Yaro published on Ghanaweb with the caption “Mass Picketing Looms as Natives Demand Return of Land from Shaanxi” dated 16th December 2019, the self-acclaimed chief and his leaders, John Bawa and John Nabwomya Millim (a native of Gaare, appointed by the self-acclaimed chief and his leaders from Gban) issued a statement published by citinewsroom.com in which they mentioned Pubortaaba and Yenyeya as towns. Pubortaaba and Yenyeya are just names of two mining enterprises owned by two individuals, Awudu Paare and Charles Ndanbon respectively. Pubortaaba and Yenyeya are not towns anywhere in Ghana. It is shameful that a self-acclaimed chief would mislead the public through the media (citinewsroom.com) by alluding to the fact that Pubortaaba and Yenyeya are towns in a press statement when they are not.

The Leaders of Gbane for Peace and Development (LOGPED) needs no approval from any traditional council before embarking on any protest action. Meanwhile, Gbane is in the status of traditional area not council. Therefore, the assertion of the self-professed chief naming the tradition as a council in his press statement is misleading.

We think that the media institution that published the news item titled “We’ve not approved any Protest against Mining Firm— Gbane Traditional Council” failed to do due diligence also by not verifying from other sources mentioned in the press statement released by the self-acclaimed chief in an attempt to tarnish the reputations of the personalities mentioned in the statement i.e. Tii-roug Zumah Yaro who happened to be the convener of the statement which the self-appointed chief and his group were reacting to on behalf of the Shaanxi Mining Ghana Ltd. Interestingly, the self-imposed chief works for Shaanxi Mining Ghana Ltd as a security officer, a fact he cannot deny unless he says he has resigned or he has been dismissed.

We have the belief that the news reporters who reported the statement signed by the supposed chief to citinewsroom.com did so to satisfy their paymasters. We again believe that Citi News would not stoop so low to engage reporters involved in the practice of yellow journalism. We call on the managers of Citi News to investigate whosoever the correspondents are in order to redeem the respect we have in them as discerning listeners of Citi News.

In any case, our publication captioned “Mass Picketing Looms as Natives Demand Return of Land from Shaanxi” was borne out of an agreement between the Shaanxi Mining Ghana Ltd and the Gbane Traditional Area which was endorsed on behalf of the two parties by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Shaanxi Mining Ghana Ltd and the Chief of Gban, Pubortaaba Nabil (late), and witnessed by Honourable Lawyer Joseph Dindiok Kpemka and Tii-roug Yaro Zumah respectively and which has been breached by Shaanxi Mining Ghana Ltd. Furthermore, the dangerous mining by the Shaanxi Mining Ghana Ltd which has caused the deaths of most of our youths and maimed several others necessitated our petition that was published.

It is laughable to have a native of Gbane who is also a security officer engaged by the Shaanxi Mining Ghana Ltd and is a self-imposed chief react to a breach of an agreement by the CEO of the Shaanxi Mining Ghana Ltd against the Gbane Traditional Area. This amounts to a serious conflict of interest. We still insist that the Shaanxi Mining Ghana Ltd has breached the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on 9th May, 2013, and needs to vacate the land leased to them. It is not a concessional land for mining. It is a land leased to them for residential purposes but to our dismay they (Shaanxi Mining Ghana Ltd) have been mining on the land from 2013 up to now (2020). That is the state of the breach of the MoU we are worried about. So, no true indigene of Talenteng will consider himself or herself as a Chinese worker and as such fights against his or her people. That would be an absurdity.

I wish to conclude by stating that in an attempt to drag the reputation of the only living witness of the MoU on behalf of the Gbane Traditional Area (Tii-roug Zumah Yaro) in the mud, the self-imposed chief and his team are quoted to have said in their press statement that he (the witness) wrote a letter to the Shaanxi Mining Ghana Ltd requesting for cash consideration in exchange of a project in the MoU and which, according to the self-imposed chief and his team, caused the execution of the project to stall. This is a mere propaganda aimed at covering up the gross misdeeds of the Shaanxi Mining Ghana Ltd and their cronies. Meanwhile, we are entreating all members of the Coalition of Pressure Groups against Dangerous Mining and Wrongful Occupancy of Farmlands to prepare themselves for the mass picketing come Friday 10th January, 2020.

Thank you and a Happy New Year to all well-meaning people of Talenteng as well as Ghanaians home and abroad.

Tii-roug Zumah Yaro

Elder of Gbane, Former Secretary to the late Chief of the Gbane Traditional Area, Nab Pubortaaba Nabil and Member of the Coalition of Pressure Groups against Dangerous Mining and Wrongful Occupancy of Farmlands.

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