or asking the youth of his area to attack a businessman, a circuit court in the Upper East region has convicted and sentenced Naab Ibrahim Awudu, an assemblyman better known in his area as “Gold Baron”.
He has been the assemblyman for Gaare-Gban, a gold-mining electoral area in the Talensi District, since December 19, 2023.
A number of residents had taken a keen interest in the criminal trial since it began in 2023.
They thronged the court’s premises in the region’s capital, Bolgatanga, shortly before judgment was passed on the assembly member on Friday, 31 January 2025.
“This conviction is a permanent blot on his career,” said one of the people after the judge, Sumaila Mbache Ahmadu, read the judgment.
“As a convicted person, how can the members of your electoral area call you an honourable at the same time?”
Gold Baron stood trial after he posted an audio recording of his own voice on the WhatsApp platform of a social group, saying:
Good evening, all Gbane youth. Some people have called me for a discussion. They are talking about Tuesday. Tuesday is too far. I have told them that, since Tuesday is too far, I can give them time and the time would be Monday.
On Monday, whether they lift the ban or not, we are not going to spare Polo. We are going to attack him. We are not going to attack because of personal issues but we are going to attack him because there is no meaning for him to work and we will not work. As the town folks, we have to work, not Polo.
The audio recording posted by Gold Baron.
The target of his rallying call was Zongdan Boyak Kolog, a gold miner from Yameriga, another community in the district.
Kolog, popularly known in the region as “Polo”, lodged a complaint with the police against Gold Baron after listening to the recording.
The police subsequently arrested Gold Baron and charged him with “threat of harm contrary to Section 74 of the Criminal Offence Act, 1960 (Act 29)”.
Background of the attack plot
Before Gold Baron plotted the attack, Polo had sued Earl International Group (Ghana) Gold Limited, a Chinese firm previously known as Shaanxi Mining Company Limited, at the High Court ‘2’ in Bolgatanga.
He sued the company with four other defendants in connection with an alleged attempt to take over his licensed small-scale mining concession in Gban, named Nanlaamtaba Enterprise, without his consent.
The other four defendants were the Minerals Commission, a former District Chief Executive of Talensi, Thomas Wuni Duanab, and two relatives of Gold Baron— the Chief of Gban, Elijah Nab Pardnyuun, and Pardzie Nab nicknamed Commando.
Polo applied for an interlocutory injunction order at the high court to restrain the five defendants from trespassing on his concession. The court, presided over by Alexander Graham at the time, granted his request.
The interlocutory injunction order, which the high court placed on the concession against the defendants including Gold Baron’s relatives, was the ban that he (Gold Baron) referred to in the audio recording when he said: “On Monday, whether they lift the ban or not, we are not going to spare Polo.”
How Gold Baron was convicted
Before the circuit court delivered judgment that Friday, Gold Baron admitted that the voice in the recording was his.
However, he claimed the call in the recording was not meant to harm Polo but to calm down some irate youth who had threatened to attack him (Polo).
The court said Gold Baron’s statement was far from being a piece of advice as he claimed.
“It is certainly a call to cause harm,” said the judge.
The circuit court further reckoned that Gold Baron employed the threats to prevent Polo from working on his own concession.
“The court finds [that] the prosecution led sufficient evidence in proof of the fact that the accused did make the utterances.
“From the facts and developments as narrated by prosecution’s witnesses and accused, it appears the accused was motivated by the objective to prevent the complainant from working on the concession through threats,” the judge stated in his judgment.
Then, he added: “In the circumstances, the court holds that the burden of proof as pertains to the elements of the offence under Section 74 of Act 29 has been sufficiently discharged. The accused is, therefore, convicted as charged.”
‘Pay a fine or go to jail’— Court tells convict
For three reasons, the judge did not hand Gold Baron a custodial sentence.
Those reasons were mentioned in a mercy plea from his lawyer, Abdulai Jaladeen.
“I have considered the plea for mitigation by counsel on behalf of the accused person. He is a first-time offender, he has dependents he takes care of and he is an assemblyman.
“I, hereby, sentence accused person to pay a fine of 100 penalty units, in default 3 months in prison custody,” the judge stated.
In monetary worth, one penalty unit is equal to Gh¢12. A fine of 100 penalty units, therefore, would amount to Gh¢1,200.
While Gold Baron was temporarily being held in the courtroom after the judgment, his close associates produced the money on his behalf in no time.
He walked slowly and quietly out of the courtroom with his head lowered, freed from going to prison, but not freed from the visible grief on his face— the grief of someone who knew what it meant to be convicted.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana
