A broadcast journalist and host of Dwaso Nsem on Adom FM, Omanhene Kwabena Asante, has criticised the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC), Reindorf Twumasi Ankrah, accusing him of discrimination and selective application of policy in the allocation and termination of mining concessions.
Speaking on Asempa FM’s Eko Siii Sen programme, the outspoken journalist described as “deeply troubling and indefensible” what he termed a pattern of decisions that appear to favour politically connected individuals under the guise of promoting indigenous Ghanaian participation in the mining sector.
Kwabena Asante, who is also a social advocate, pointed to what he described as an emerging attempt to replicate a similar approach within the Ghana bauxite sector. He alleged that contracts held by wholly Ghanaian-owned entities, including that of businessman Isaac Ofori Poku, were being revoked to make way for the same beneficiary.
“This is not indigenisation; this is selective empowerment,” he stressed, warning that such actions risk eroding public trust and undermining genuine efforts to build a competitive local mining industry.
In a strongly worded appeal, he called on the GIADEC CEO to “immediately reverse what can only be described as dubious and self-serving decisions” and restore the concessions to what he described as their “rightful custodians.”
“We all applauded when the government moved to take over a foreign-managed concession in the name of empowering Ghanaians. But how do you justify taking from one Ghanaian and handing it to another with clear political ties?” he quizzed.
He cautioned that failure to address these concerns promptly could deepen perceptions of cronyism and unfair competition within Ghana’s extractive sector, urging authorities to uphold transparency, equity and due process in all concession-related decisions.
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