Lawyers for the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, have been instructed to appeal the 20-year prison sentence imposed on him by the Accra High Court over illegal mining activities.
The disclosure was made by Kwame Andy Appiah Kubi, a former lead counsel for Chairman Wontumi, during an interview on TV3’s News Central on Monday, July 20.
Asked whether he had received instructions from Chairman Wontumi to challenge the conviction and sentence, Appiah Kubi responded, “Precisely so.”
He also described the court’s decision to jail the NPP Ashanti Regional Chairman as disappointing.
On Monday, July 20, the Accra High Court convicted Chairman Wontumi and his company, Akonta Mining, after finding them guilty of illegal mining offences committed at the company’s Samreboi concession in the Western Region.
Prior to the judgement, Wontumi’s lead counsel, Samuel Atta Akyea, had applied for the proceedings to be adjourned, explaining that he was out of the country and expected to return on July 22.
However, the trial judge, Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay, dismissed the application, stating that the judgement date had been agreed upon by both parties and that counsel should have raised any scheduling concerns at the time it was fixed.
The court also rejected an application by the defence seeking a deferment of the judgement and a referral of constitutional issues to the Supreme Court for determination.
Chairman Wontumi was charged with assigning mineral rights without the approval of the Minister responsible for mining and facilitating unlicensed mining operations at Samreboi in the Western Region.
Following his conviction, the court sentenced him to 20 years’ imprisonment.