Tension mounts at Bogoso

Bogoso (Western Region) -- Tension is mounting at Bogoso, a mining town in the Wassa West District of the Western Region over the payment, collection and disbursement of royalties and some factors.

The other factors are a protracted chieftaincy disputes, unsolved two-year murder case, operations of mining companies in the area and frustration of illegal "galamsey" operators who find their livelihood threatened by the operations of the major mining companies.

Albert K. Obbin, MP for the area, the police, the Assemblyman of the area, Osei Kuffuor Omooyey and opinion leaders confirmed to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in separate interviews on Monday and Tuesday saying that if the tension was allowed to explode, it would be worse than conflicts that have hit other parts of the country.

Obbin said the chieftaincy dispute in the town was tense and that was why he was not involving any of the disputing chiefs in his political and social activities because "as a politician I don't want to be accused by any of the factions for taking sides with any other".

"There is even a big problem over some of the 'chiefs' collecting and misusing royalties paid by mining companies in the area." He said he was checking up from the Administrator of Stool Lands to find out which of chiefs, have been involved in the collection of the royalties.

Police Inspector Mathias Okrofu, in-charge of Bogoso Police Station and Detective Chief Inspector Francis Gborgla agreed that there was tension in the town and that they the police were monitoring the situation.

Detective Inspector Gborgla said they were being careful of not being accused by the people of taking sides in the case adding "it is even painful that in our duty we are being accused by some people of taking money from some of the factions when we are seen with them and more so when there are some chieftaincy cases are before the courts."

He said the docket on a case in which one of the litigating chiefs was accused of beheading one Adjei Manu, 56, at Kookoase in October 2000, was before the Homicide Police and the Attorney-General's office in Accra.

The police said that incident took place before they were even transferred to the area. The Assemblyman, Omooyey said the unsolved murder problem was a great worry to the people in the area because they felt justice was being delayed.

He also confirmed that some of the chiefs had collected between 53 and 123 million cedis in royalties and yet the town was without good school buildings, lack of drainage systems and poor water situation. Omooyey said because of the chieftaincy disputes the mining companies have not being paying the royalties while the town needed money to develop.