Dr. Jonathan Asante Otchere, a political analyst and lecturer at the University of Cape Coast, has added to claims that some New Patriotic Party (NPP) members are excited over Wontumi’s imprisonment.
Bernard Antwi Boasiako, aka Wontumi, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), is serving a 20-year jail term for crimes related to illegal mining, aka ‘galamsey’.
Following his incarceration, some politically exposed persons, including the United Party’s Director of Communications, Solomon Owusu, have alleged that certain people in the party are jubilating.
According to Dr. Asante Otchere, Wontumi indulged in several excesses and exhibited opulence while his party was in power, including displaying gold bars on live TV, an act the political analyst believes contributes to the excitement within the NPP over his sentencing.
Speaking on Ghana Tonight on TV3 on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, the UCC lecturer indicated that the once powerful Wontumi whose political aura was beyond the Ashanti region where he served as Chairman, has now lost his political influence.
“But there are others within the party itself who are overjoyed because of some of the excesses that Wontumi displayed long before even the elections; eg, displaying gold before a live TV programme and so forth,” he stated.
“He exuded that kind of invincibility [but] it appears that now, his light is dimmed,” he added.
Wontumi was found guilty, got convicted and sentenced by the Accra High Court in a trial in which he and his company, Akonta Mining Limited, were found guilty on six counts relating to the assignment of mineral rights without ministerial approval and facilitating an unlicensed mining operation.
That was after the court, presided over by Justice Audrey Kocuvie-Tay, held that the prosecution had proved its case that Chairman Wontumi and Akonta Mining permitted Henry Okoom and Michael Gyedu Ayisi to undertake mining activities on the company’s concession without securing the prior approval of the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, and thereby facilitated illegal mining on the land.
In addition to the jail term, Chairman Wontumi will pay GH¢120,000, in default of which he will serve three years in prison.
His company, however, will pay GH¢180,000 on two counts.
Relying largely on circumstantial evidence, the court was of the view that the absence of ministerial approval was never contested by the defence, describing the admission as implicit since no application for approval had been been made by the company.
Chairman Wontumi had told the court he had granted Henry Okoom permission only to reclaim land by planting coconut, and not to mine.
He said he did not know Okoom was a small-scale miner, maintaining that Okoom had presented himself as a mine support service provider.
The court, however, held that this explanation could not stand.
It added that Chairman Wontumi led no evidence to verify Okoom’s claimed reclamation experience, and that Okoom, in unchallenged testimony, told the court he mined on unmined portions of the concession to recover costs after Chairman Wontumi failed to give him money for the reclamation work.
Relying on the principles of circumstantial evidence set out in Duah v The Republic [1987-88] 1 GLR 343, the court found that no reasonable explanation existed to rival the conclusion that Chairman Wontumi had knowingly permitted Okoom to mine.
It dismissed as an afterthought Chairman Wontumi’s later explanation that he expected Okoom to recover his costs from the eventual sale of matured coconuts.
Citing the exceptions in the seminal case of Morkor v Kuma, the court lifted Akonta Mining’s corporate veil, finding no functioning management or executive board within the company.
It held that Chairman Wontumi was the true de facto holder of the mineral right and the sole controlling mind of the company during the period the offences were committed.
“The A3’s corporate veil should be lifted as there is no real difference between the two (Chairman Wontumi and Akonta) in relation to dealing with the persons permitted to mine.
“There was no functioning management board and executive management board to deal as a company. All acts were done by Chairman Wontumi, the true de facto holder of the mineral right,” the judge said.
Several lawyers took turns to pray for mitigation and urged the court to impose the minimum sentence.
Meanwhile, the leadership of the NPP has announced its intentions to appeal the ruling, describing their Chairman’s sentencing as politically motivated.
