Northern Patriots in Research And Advocacy Threatens Demo Over Criminal Conducts Of Australians, Directors Of Cassius Mining Ltd

GOVERNMENT TO BE REMINDED THROUGH PEACEFUL DEMONSTRATION TO INVESTIGATE PROMOTERS OF CASSIUS MINING LTD

Northern Patriots in Research and Advocacy (NORPRA), a Civil Society Organization (CSO) working to promote peace, security and sustainable mining in mining communities in the northern part of Ghana has, in its general meeting, resolved to embark on a peaceful demonstration against government's slow response to its call for investigations into alleged criminal conducts of some Australian nationals whose names appeared similar to that of some Directors and Shareholders of Cassius Mining Ltd in Ghana.

It would be recalled that NORPRA recently issued a press statement clearly stating serious crimes committed by persons whose names are the same as that of those serving as Directors and shareholders of a large scale mining company in Ghana, Cassius Mining Ltd. With high level of determination to make the investigative bodies of the state to act on the matter, the organization went further to officially petition the Inspector- General of Police calling for immediate investigations into the matter.

The press statement and the petition were not only used to show how these properly documented criminal records have been made publicly available to the world but also drew the attention of the Ghanaian people to the fact that the laws of Ghana particularly Section 186 of the Company Act, 1963, Act 179 do not allow fraudulent persons and ex-convicts irrespective of where their crimes were committed to run such businesses.

Despite these conscious efforts of a group of responsible citizens to alert government for appropriate actions to be taken for the protection of the laws of the land and reduction in crime and insecurity in troubled mining communities in Ghana, the government is yet to act. This is certainly very worrying as it has the potential of discouraging well-meaning citizens from risking their lives to report suspected criminals.

Government needs to note that its failure to swiftly respond to the call for investigation into this serious matter that obviously has an implication on national security is the main reason for this intended demonstration.

We urge government not to take issues of crimes especially those that border on drugs lightly because of its effect on peace, security and development in the country.

We wish to use this opportunity to inform management of Cassius Mining Ltd that we will surely engage them when our government is done with the investigations, for this reason, we are advising Cassius Mining Ltd to stop threatening NORPRA with ultimatums and legal suits as this will not scare or discourage us from pushing for investigations into the issues raised.

As a well-organized group that has a track record in organizing peaceful demonstrations in the country, we are hopeful that the police will fully cooperate with us when they are notified in accordance with the Public Order Act about this peaceful demonstration.

Bismark Adongo Ayorogo
(Executive Director)
0209313630