The youth of Bongo-Soe community in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region say, the operations of a Chinese Mining Firm in the area is breeding conflict between the people of Bongo-Soe and Feo Communities.
The Company, J.T Kong is said to have started prospecting for Gold in the district for close to 2 months.
When A1 News visited the forest in which the Company operates, about 5 Chinese nationals and some locals were busily operating with heavy duty mining machinery.
A Chief Security of the Company armed with a fire arm did not only prevent our reporter from entering the concession, but threatened to deal with him if he dared to take pictures of the area.
When A1 News contacted the community members, they said they have been short changed by the Company. According to them, a document issued to the mining firm for prospecting Gold has Feo Community on it, and not Bongo-Soe community where the activity is taking place.
The youth of Bongo-Soe stated that, the situation could create a conflict between the two communities, which have co-existed peacefully for many years. They have therefore threatened to use legitimate measures to resist the operations of the Company, if authorities fail to pay heed to their concerns.
“We will demonstrate to stop this mining issue [but] if they fail to stop, calamity will fall on the land. Because the Feo Chief claims that, the land is his own which is not true. It is for Soe.” Angrily looking, Amoah Moses fumed.
Assembly member of Bongo-Soe Electoral Area, Philemon Ataba, said several petitions to the Bongo District Assembly to halt the activities of the Chinese mining firm have proved futile.
“If you go there, they [JT Kong] are there mining and even putting gunshots to scare us away. Since this happened, we have not had an Assembly meeting, but we wrote to DISEC expression our concerns. The entire Soe community is not happy so we want to call for assistants [and] if care is not taken, there will be chaos in this community.” he said.
Source: a1radioonline.com | 101.1Mhz | Joshua Asaah