Blackmail plot against Minister over Big Stone Mining Company …Journalist accuses Jubilee House Staff

Popular television and radio presenter, Omanhene Kwabena Asante in the employ of the Multimedia Group, has disclosed that two persons from the Seat of Government, the Jubilee House, recently contacted him in a failed attempt to contract him to blackmail and tarnish the reputation of the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame but he declined the unholy offer.

“Take your Jubilee House and let me take my Asempa. So don’t sit there and be placing phone calls to me. The codes are CKF and OFK. They understand because they called me. They should stay away from some of us and nobody should attempt, attempt underlined, to drag the name of the Attorney General of Ghana into the mud. We destroy our own people for selfish gains. They should stay away from some of us and nobody should attempt to drag the name of the Attorney General into the mud”, the highly respected Broadcast Journalist noted while speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosiisen afternoon socio-political talk show last Wednesday, September 7, 2020.

Omanhene continued: “Those who are bent on tarnishing the image of the Attorney General are his own people at the Jubilee House. It is a warning to them. We don’t do gutter journalism here. We don’t do character assassination here. We don’t blackmail. Go to those places that you think you can do those negotiations with. We speak to the facts.”

Omanhene was speaking in relation to the ongoing shareholder legal tussle over the Big Stone Mining Limited, a wholly-owned Chinese company operating at Bogoso in the Western Region in which the office of the Attorney General and Minister for Justice had given a legal advice to the Ghana Police Service that the continuous presence of the police at the private company was illegal and should discontinue.

Curiously, the uniformed officers of the Ghana Police Service were still permanently camped at the private premises of Big Stone Mining Limited despite the legal advice from the Attorney General.

Omanhene Kwabena Asante did not mention the exact names of the persons from the Jubilee House who contacted him to blackmail the Attorney General but only gave the codes of “CFK” and “OFK” which he said were more than enough clues for the criminally minded blackmailers to understand and stay away else he would open the full can of worms.

In a letter dated August 31, 2022, and addressed to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), the Attorney General was clear that the police personnel should be withdrawn from the site of Big Stone Mining Limited because the ex parte order from the High Court which allowed the police to be there was for only a period of 10 days and had long expired.

The letter, headed as “RE: PETITION FOR REDRESS IN THE MATTER OF WAN SHANGHONG, ANG LIU VRS BIG STONE MINING LTD & 6 ORS AND REPUBLIC VRS JIANGDONG SONG & 5 OTHERS”, noted:
“Reference is made to the above-mentioned subject.

“As you may recall, pursuant to a Petition to our Office on the 18′ August, 2022 from the lawyers of BIG STONE MINING LTD (the Company) & 5 ORS namely, Jiangdong Song, Yi Liu, Jiang Chenye, Kudjo Mawulolo Noukafou and Sima Songyang, we wrote a letter dated 23~ August, 2022 with our Reference No. AGD/DR 80/22 to you on the above subject.

“The Petitioners have once again petitioned our Office about the continuous presence of personnel of the Police Service at the site of the company.

“We write to bring to your attention that the order of the High Court, Commercial Division, Accra, granted on 28′ July, 2022, was an ex parte order. Being an ex parte order, its lifespan is for ten (10) days in line with the High Court, Civil Procedure, Rules 2004 (CI 47).

“This order has therefore elapsed and it is respectfully advised that the Police personnel should be withdrawn forthright from the site.

“We count on your co-operation.”

Meanwhile, the Ghana Chinese Chamber of Commerce has raised official complaints against the occupation of the armed policemen as well as the conduct of the said troop at the private premises of Big Stone Mining Limited.

The Chamber, in an official statement, expressed surprise that not even a legal advice from the office of the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, the Government’s legal advisor, has been able to get the said policemen to vacate the private property.

Describing the encampment as shocking, the Chamber said their presence and driving away of the mine’s workers by the policemen when they are fully aware there was a pending legal matter over the shareholding of the company, flies in the face of the laws of Ghana and sends discouraging signals to foreign investors.

The Chamber, in a petition to Government, said it has reason to believe that the plaintiff in a court case over the shareholding of the company, was using political connection and influence from particular persons at the Jubilee House to do what is not acceptable by law against the company and causing it huge financial losses.

The Chamber, in a letter to the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, called for action to restore normalcy with a sense of urgency.

It served notice it may be compelled to put out the names of the exact top politicians at the Jubilee House who are doing the wrong things and giving the Nana Addo led-Government a bad reputation among foreign investors who come to do business in Ghana.

In a statement dated August 30, 2022, and signed by the President of the Chamber, Tang Hong, the Chamber stated: “We hope that the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General, the Chief Justice and the Ghana Police Service can take the fairness and impartiality of the law as a criterion, crackdown on illegal acts and also give justice to business operators, and give confidence to investors in Ghana,” the letter which was copied to the Chief Justice, and the IGP stated.