The Talensi District Police Command has arrested a young man for allegedly mobilising some people believed to be thugs to attack a miner and philanthropist in Talensi, Zongdan Boyak Kolog, popularly known as “Polo”.
Ibrahim Naab, alias “Gold Baron”, was apprehended on Wednesday four days after Kolog lodged a complaint with the police with evidence against Naab.
A voice said to be that of Naab is heard in an audio recording saying in the locally spoken Talen that Kolog would be shown no mercy during the intended strike. The attack is reported to have been plotted at Gbane, a gold-mining suburb in the east of Talensi.
“Good evening, all Gbane youth. Some people have called me for a discussion and they are talking about Tuesday. Tuesday is too far. I have told them that since Tuesday is too far, I can give them time and the time would be Monday. And on Monday, when they lift the ban― whether they lift the ban or they don’t lift the ban― we are not going to spare Polo.
“We are going to attack him. We are not going to attack him because of personal issues, but we are going to attack him because there is no meaning for him to work and we will not work. As town folks, we have to work and not he Polo,” the lone voice rallied in a 39-second-long recording.
The attack plot comes a few weeks after the High Court 2 in Bolgatanga, capital of the Upper East Region, presided over by Justice Alexander Graham, granted an interlocutory injunction in a trespass lawsuit in favour of Kolog, Managing Director of Nanlamtaaba Enterprise, a licensed small-scale mining firm in the district.
The interlocutory injunction, issued by the court on February 23, 2023, orders five parties sued in the case to stay away from Kolog’s concession. The five parties include Earl International Group (Ghana) Gold Limited, the Minerals Commission and the District Chief Executive (DCE) of Talensi, Thomas Wuni Duanab. The other defendants in the case, who are relations of “Gold Baron”, are the Chief of Gbane, Elijah Nab Pardnyuun, and Pardzie Nab alias “Commando”.
The DCE of Talensi and two men― John Nabwomya Milim and John Bawa, who are also in court as defendants in separate lawsuits in the region― were spotted at the Talensi District Police Command by journalists as of the time bail was being sought for “Gold Baron” on Wednesday.
Possible contempt of court
Many are of the view that “Gold Baron” is likely to be cited for contempt of court for the comments being attributed to him in the recording. His arrest comes days after two natives of Talensi― the Chief of Baare, Naab Nyakora Mantii, and Richard Sunday Yinbil, Secretary to the Paramount Chief of Talensi, Tongraan Kugbilsong Nanlebegtang, were arrested and handcuffed in a courtroom and later charged with contempt and convicted on their own plea after they sought to influence the court’s presiding
judge, Justice Alexander Graham.
The two men had told Justice Graham privately in his chambers on March 10, 2023, that they had been sent to him by the Tongraan to tell the judge to meet with him the following day at his palace in Tongo, capital of the Talensi District, for some private discussions on some mining-related cases that had been filed from Talensi and were being handled by the judge. The judge, whom many observers say has been incorruptible throughout his career in the judicial service, dismissed the two men from his chambers and immediately asked police officers in the courtroom to arrest them for prosecution.
The judge also demanded that the Tongraan himself be produced at once by his agents to face prosecution. But lawyers, numbering about twelve in the courtroom at the time, pleaded for mitigation.
While the lawyers prayed profusely for a non-custodial sentence, a lawyer from Gbewaa Chambers, Mohammed Damanko Abdulai, told the judge that the Tongraan had expressed regrets for his action in a telephone conversation and had asked him to intervene by pleading for a non-custodial sentence on behalf of the two accused persons.
The two agents, after their conviction, were ordered by the High Court to sign a bond of good behaviour for a period of six months at the Upper East Regional Police Command.
Many individuals and anti-graft organisations across the country still want the Tongraan, too, to face the law on the matter of influence peddling and contempt. Anti-corruption group, National Patriots against Injustice and Corruption Ghana (NAPAIC-Ghana) told journalists at a news conference held after the conviction of the two men that the action of the Tongraan was “a big embarrassment to the entire region”.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5 Fm
