An aspiring Second Vice Chairman for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addai Poku Aikins, has alleged that Bernard Antwi Bosiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, is a victim of political targeting following his recent sentencing to 20 years in prison for facilitating illegal mining.
According to him, the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) had previously issued threats while in opposition to incarcerate the Ashanti Regional NPP Chairman.
He claimed his assertions are grounded on those prior warnings, insisting that his relative was sent to prison merely because certain individuals wanted to demonstrate political dominance, rather than as a result of any genuine legal infraction.
The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP, alongside his firm, Akonta Mining Limited, was convicted and sentenced to two decades in prison by an Accra High Court on Monday, 20 July 2026.
The court found Wontumi and Akonta Mining guilty on counts relating to the assignment of mineral rights without ministerial approval and deliberately facilitating unlawful mining operations.
However, Nana Addai Poku Aikins maintains that Wontumi is a political prisoner who is suffering an abuse of the judicial system.
“Wontumi was pronounced guilty even when the NPP had not lost the elections. Some appointees in government today, while in opposition, threatened that Wontumi would be jailed by hook or crook. These were clear signs that the NDC had plotted, schemed, and orchestrated an agenda to throw Wontumi in jail to show him where power lies.”
Speaking in an interview on Frontline on Rainbow Radio 87.5FM, he stated that the outcome of the case was a travesty of justice that would ultimately be corrected through the appeal process.
“From the way they behaved in opposition, the Rambo-style arrest, the threats to jail him are the reasons why I am making these claims, and you could see that someone or people orchestrated this,” he noted, emphasizing that the politician was targeted purely for political reasons.
When host Kwabena Agyapong asked whether he had failed to direct his mind to the court proceedings and the outcome that complied with the law, Aikins insisted that Wontumi was singled out and that the trial was a sham.
He posited that the presiding judge never declared Wontumi directly involved in illegal mining, but rather found that he assigned his rights to another entity that carried out the illicit operations.
He further argued that no robust evidence was submitted to the court to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
He stressed that it was the prosecution’s duty to provide compelling proof, a requirement he claims they failed to meet. Expressing confidence in the judiciary’s higher hierarchy, he added that the appeal will succeed and the Ghanaian public will discern the flawed handling of the case by the High Court.
He concluded, however, that if the appeal fails and it is conclusively established that Wontumi breached the laws of the land, then so be it.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana