One person was reportedly shot dead at Toflokpo, near Sege, in the Greater Accra Region, when the security personnel of Electrochem, a salt mining company, reportedly clashed with the residents. The residents are accusing Electrochem, which has won the contract to mine salt in the Ada enclave for fifteen years, of denying them access to their main source of livelihood.
They are also accusing the mining company of ordering its security men to open fire on them during recent skirmishes between the two parties. Citinewsroom.com quoted an eyewitness as saying: “I was on air when I heard there was an attack on the people in the area. They were allegedly attacked by some land guards of Electrochem. About 25 people were reportedly injured.
“Today, these alleged land guards went to Toflokpo. The Chief of the town informed me that when the land guards arrived, they began attacking anyone in sight. The people of Toflokpo retaliated as well. Some residents of Ada stated that this is their source of livelihood, so if Electrochem takes over all the land, where will they find their source of income and livelihood.”
But, contrary to what the eyewitness is saying, Electrochem has denied that its security men were the first to attack the residents. The website quoted Nene Siada, Operations Manager of Electrochem, as saying that though it deployed a taskforce to prevent people from taking over their concession, they never opened fire on the residents, as is being alleged.
“We were on the field when, all of a sudden, we heard noises, which were from a lot of crowd from the town. We made sure that we protected our equipment and personnel. The people started throwing stones at us.
“I heard Nene saying the police were shooting, but before man and God, there was no shooting. We were trying to protect our concession and we have made announcements that they should move from that place. No one went there to shoot because our security guys don’t even use guns. We never shot a gun, not even a warning shot.
“We gladly welcome any other person that wants to do salt business with us, and we have been given fifteen years to mine salt at Ada and this thing went through the traditional authorities and Parliament, so this thing is legal.
We have people who are doing illegal mining there. We have done over ninety-five community engagements and we continue to do engagements. So I don’t understand why someone would say we’ve never engaged the community,” the Manager reportedly said.
The Ada salt mining issue is similar to what is going on in the gold mining areas of the country. Though the mining companies claim to have acquired the concessions legally, illegal miners are still operating on them. But for the astute managerial skills it displayed, these illegal miners would have died when they invaded the AngloGold Ashanti underground mine at the Obuasi some months ago.
But whilst the illegal miners in the gold producing areas have no justification for invading legally acquired concession of some of the mining conglomerates because part of the concession had already been ceded to them, we do not think the same can be said when it comes to salt mining in Ada, though we stand to be corrected.
The Ada people have depended on the Songhor Lagoon for ages as their main source of livelihood. In our view, therefore, the Mineral Commission, in giving out the concession to Electrochem, should have left out a small portion for the small scale miners to also operate on, but we believe this was not done.
The Chronicle is, therefore, not surprised that the residents are fighting Electrochem, because they have to also mine in order to earn some income to look after their dependants. In view of this, we are appealing to the government to intervene and see to it that the right thing has been done. If portions of the concession were not ceded to the local people, as being done in gold producing areas, then such anomaly must be corrected as early as possible.
However, if the people have legally been given part of the concession to operate on, but are still trespassing into that of Electrochem, then the law must deal with the offenders. Since Ghana is not a lawless state, it is incumbent upon every citizen to obey the law.
Whilst the government looks into the concerns we have raised, the police must also probe and find out the one who actually fired the gun that killed an innocent person at Toflokpo. We are making this call because both Electrochem and the indigenes are denying responsibility.
