There is a renewed tension between the locals and land owners at the Zangbeyire area in the Bawku West District of the Upper East Region and a mining company called the “Rich Power Mining Ghana Limited” over a mining concession.
It would be recalled that in the year 2014 the locals and landowners accused the management of the mining Company for not following the due processes of the community entry and sensitization procedures as required by the Mining laws before carrying out their mining activities in the area.
The situation at that time led to communal clashes between various sub-community groups and the staff of the company resulting into the burning of some equipment belonging to the mining Company and the subsequent arrest of some of the locals including 90 years old, optically and physically impaired old women and men, pregnant women and school children.
Speaking to Radio Ghana, the local and land owners indicated that they have picked signals that some government authorities and traditional rulers in the area have gone into a deal with the Rich Power Mining Ghana Limited to return to work in the community.
The group stated that, a their letter dated July 18, 2018, with the subject matter “NOTICE OF RE-ENTRY OF RICH POWER MINING COMPANY LIMITED TO ZANGBEYIRE “and addressed to the Upper East Regional Minister, it is clear that the stage is set for the conflict of Zangbeyire area”, The local and landowners who noted that those community members who were arrested during the clashes in 2014 were manhandled and brutalized and some thrown into the Bawku Prison, said they would resist any attempt made by any authority or traditional rulers to allow the same Rich Power Mining Ghana Limited to return to the community to resume work.
Meanwhile, in a press release issued and signed by the community members including community leaders, youth leaders, women leaders, Tingdanas, sub chiefs, landowners and opinion leaders, they stressed that their lands were properly invested in their family clans and kept in custody by what they termed as “Tingdanas” and not in the custody of traditional authorities.
According to the group, the Zangbeyire area is not only endowed with rich natural resources including gold , but also has a major potential in the area of agriculture of which 99 percent of the people being agrarian.
The over two hundred local people and landowners of the Zangbeyire who signed the Press Release. Rich Power Mining Ghana Limited, an associate of the Shaanxi Mining Ghana Limited which is a Chinese Mining Company, moved to the area in 2013 after securing a license to do prospecting in the area,within thirty-eight thousand, nine hundred and nineteen (38, 919) acres.
