Zongdan Boyak Kolog, one of the Talensi small-scale gold miners who have strongly disagreed with handing over their licensed concessions to Chinese mining companies in the Upper East region, has secured bail at a high court in Bolgatanga.
The miner, better known in his native Talensi district as Polo, slept in oven-like police cells for 4 weeks after the Upper East Regional Police Command, led by Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Raymond Wejong Ali Adofiem, arrested and charged him along 8 other persons with abetment of crime and possession of firearms, explosives and ammunition.
While behind bars, his lawyers (from the Kulendi @ Law Maalo Chambers) and several residents expressed the belief that the weapons were planted on him and petitioned the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Christian Tetteh Yohuno, to order forensics on the arms.
They were also of the view that he became a target for torture at the hands of some traditional authorities and the Adofiem administration because he declined to surrender his goldfield to the Chinese.
As drums of a planned massive street demonstration began to sound following a notice to the district police command in Bolgatanga about the demo, the IGP transferred DCOP Adofiem from the region to the national headquarters.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) John Ferguson Dzineku, who is also a lawyer, took over on Friday, 27 June 2025, as the new Upper East Regional Police Commander. He was called to the bar on Friday, 20 October 2023.
Polo was granted bail on Wednesday, 2 July 2025, with two sureties, one of whom the court said should be on government payroll with a salary not below ¢3,000 (US$288.46) while the other should have a landed property.
He met the bail conditions and was in court today (July 16). He is due to reappear on Tuesday, 29 July 2025.
Background
Polo complained to the Upper East Regional Police Command in 2023 that Chinese-owned Earl International Group (Ghana) Gold Limited, formerly Shaanxi Mining (Ghana) Limited, had encroached on his concession in Talensi.
The regional police command advised him to go to court. Based on that piece of advice, he proceeded to court, instituting Suit Number UE/BG/HC2/C1/06/2023 against the Chinese company and Ghana’s Minerals Commission at High Court ‘2’ in Bolgatanga.
He also added three individuals— Thomas Wuni Pearson Duanab, Elijah Nab Pardnyuun and Pardzie Nab—to the suit as defendants. Duanab is a former District Chief Executive (DCE) of Talensi. Pardnyuun is the sub-divisional chief of Gban, a mining suburb of Talensi. Pardzie Nab is a gold miner, nicknamed Commando and known for brandishing and firing guns in public.
Polo applied for an interlocutory injunction order from the court restraining the defendants and their associates from trespassing on his concession.
The court granted his request on Thursday, 23 February 2023, ruling that he could continue with his business at the site. But some lawless members of that community subsequently threatened him, warning him to stay away from the concession. Those individuals took over the goldfield and began to illegally mine there as a gang.
Polo engaged the services of a private security firm called Sherlock Security Company— a decision grounded in a cabinet decision— to protect his concession from the illegal miners.
The regional police commander prevented the security company from going to the site but promised to assist Polo to work there. The regional commander, instead of fulfilling that promise, “frustrated” Polo. This compelled Polo to lodge a petition dated 17th February 2025 with the IGP against the regional commander.
Following that petition, the regional commander invited Polo to a meeting where he suggested that Polo engage the encroachers as his workers.
Polo agreed to legally register them as part of his enterprise and to split the proceeds realised from the concession with them by a mutual agreement.
The regional commander also made an arrangement with the district police command in Talensi to escort Polo to the site. But while Polo’s representatives were registering the trespassers on Saturday, 31 May 2025, some police officers and military personnel, accompanied by 40 young men from Gban, invaded Polo’s house at the site and ransacked it.
The officers arrested the representatives, eight in number, physically assaulted them and locked them in cells. The command also arrested Polo and threw him behind bars.
“We also hasten to observe that Mr [Adofiem’s] actions as Regional Police Commander smack of the utmost bad faith. In contravention of his lawful duties he rather supports illegal miners against legitimate concession owners.
“His action against our client is anything but lawful. He lured our client to the concession and then turned around to arrest him without cause. We are also informed that the Police seized a legitimately registered pump action gun and unlawfully planted an AK 47 rifle pretending to have found same on the representatives of our client,” the lawyers told the IGP in a petition.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana
