Hansol Mining CEO: Some Personnel Are Taking Advantage of Mahama's Directive

The Chief Executive Officer of Hansol Mining Company, Benard Antwi Boasiako has stated that some individuals are taking advantage of President John Mahama�s directive for the security services to check the infiltration of the small-scale mining sector by foreigners to enrich themselves, by looting and collapsing businesses of indigenes. He lamented: �I am not sure no other businessman in Ghana has suffered my fate in the history of this country. Yesterday, people who want to hide behind that directive to get rich overnight ransacked and burnt to ashes all my companies around the country�. �They took away money, gold and any other valuable they could lay their hands on and later touched the work places despite the fact that they saw no foreigner�. According to Mr. Antwi Boasiako, other containers and its contents which had nothing to do with the mining activities were also burnt down including an invention of his, called �wo ntumi milk maker�, which was due to be launched next month. Mr. Antwi Boasiako�s claim comes on the back of a press conference held by the Ghana National Association of Small-scale Miners (GNASSM) organized in Accra on Tuesday, June 4,2013 that some members of the task force with the duty of ensuring foreigners do not indulge in small-scale mining illegally are deviating from their mandate. The Executive Director of GNASSM, Mr. Emmanuel Yirenkyi, who addressed the press, said some security men with the task force were pursuing their own agenda. However, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, dismissed the claims by the small scale-miners, saying the National Security Task Force was working with clear guidelines to seize the equipment of illegal miners, whether they are foreigners or Ghanaians. Mr. Benard Antwi Boasiako told Adom FM in a telephone interview that he is sad to be a Ghanaian because of what is being done to him. He could not come to terms with the fact that the National Security Task Force went ahead to smolder his workplaces even though there was no foreigner in sight and further hinted that he would be coming out with revelations on the atrocities committed against Chinese National soon.