The First Time the Peasant to see the 'Money Man' Jailed by our Courtrooms: A Discretionary Call to have Expectations Measured

The courtroom had gone quiet. Not the ordinary silence of people waiting for a judge. This was the kind of silence that hangs over a mining pit after the excavators have stopped growling. The witnesses had spoken. The lawyers had exhausted their vocabulary. The defence had called its fifth and final witness. The prosecution had fired its last shot months ago.

Now all that remained was a date. This July 3 will has verdict passed. Just one day for this all awaiting one judgment. Wontumi or Wobɛtumi?

Across Ghana, the case has already escaped the courtroom and entered folklore. The name Bernard Antwi-Boasiako no longer appears merely as a politician’s name. It has become a national riddle in libs of the people.

The obvious question in many minds is can a man hold a mineral concession and escape responsibility when illegal mining flourishes upon it? July 3 will never come. Not at all!

You may term it the shenanigans with the scenes of stripped of politics, stripped of party colours, stripped of television theatrics shredding the law shameful or otherwise. That is in the heart of the Samreboi trial.

Nice proceedings with legal intellectualism in display and the prosecution says the answer is no. In fact, the law may be leaning in that direction for all you know.

A quick one here. Under Ghana’s Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703), mineral rights are not ordinary property that can be casually handed around like car keys. The law places strict obligations on holders of mineral rights and requires ministerial approval for assignments, transfers, and arrangements affecting those rights.

A concession holder enjoys privileges, but those privileges come with duties, oversight responsibilities, and accountability. This, the defence disagrees completely in no uncertain conditions.

Their argument is equally simple that no assignment occurred. The argument was that contractors are not concession holders and on top of it illegal miners are not necessarily agents of the concession owner. Again, presence is not proof and just as suspicion is not evidence.

Take it from here that in criminal law, assumptions are worthless unless they can survive the brutal test of proof beyond reasonable doubt. Yet the prosecution’s argument rests on something larger than technical paperwork. It rests on responsibility.

Simple put, if mining occurred repeatedly on a concession, if third parties extracted value from that concession, and whether the concession holder either facilitated, tolerated, or failed to prevent such activities, then the question becomes unavoidable.

Let us all ponder and dispassionately interrogate the the meat of the issues at hand. At what point does ignorance cease to be a defence and become negligence? Reflect on this, with all due respect, folks and this will explain why the failed no case submission became such an important moment.in the adjudication.

What the populace was fed during the trial common for any level-headed person to extrapolate and arrive at a concrete deduction. This is it. The court effectively said there was sufficient evidence to answer. Hysterically, it revealed not enough to convict, not enough to acquit, but enough to answer. I ask myself, what to answer, but so answer they did.

Apprised in furtherance is nine witnesses later, Ghana finds itself waiting. But the most fascinating and weird thing about this trial is not Wontumi. You better concur and It is you and I.

Closely and keenly observe the national conversation and you will discover that many people already know the verdict. Oh yeah! While some decided the moment they heard his name, others decided the moment they heard his party. Obvious.

To some, he is already guilty because he is Wontumi and to others, he is already innocent because he is Wontumi. I am not interested in either camp because I have read and lived through the journey of our republic after the overthrow of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah and as the first constitutional president of Ghana as Blacks in this part of continent, which I have come to the conclusion to be our way of life. Very intrinsic!

You wonder, as it may interest many, alike, where are the principle. Because if the law cannot reach powerful concession holders when illegal mining occurs under their watch, then the fight against galamsey becomes little more than a public relations exercise. The law cannot be fierce against the excavator operator and timid before the concession owner. That is honest take!

That is why this trial matters far beyond Samreboi. The judge is not merely deciding the fate of three accused persons. Rather, the court is deciding whether concession ownership carries legal consequences when illegal mining occurs under one’s authority, supervision, or control.

Mining companies are watching. Prosecutors are watching. Concession holders are watching. Even the galamsey operators themselves are watching. What exactly is the crime of the pauper to never taste fair judgements in their favour against the 'money man'? So, judgments are traded for money anytime these two opposing worlds meet courtrooms?

The principles are not simply with us. Note this down because whatever emerges on July 3 may become a precedent far larger than the man standing in the dock.

For now, Ghana waits. The excavators are silent, the witnesses have gone home, the lawyers have packed their files, and the judge alone holds the next chapter. And what do you expect?

The scepticism, to me, is defused completely somewhere between Wontumi and Wobetumi. Even if it ends up with Wobetumi, imagine the paltry nature of the punitive punishment. This, one cannot mince words about the nature of our past experiences involving the 'moneyman' and peasant in this country. A finger of plantain have Peasants locked years and we are fine with it.

We are patiently waiting this July 3, not in party headquarters, not on radio, not on Facebook, not in campaign noise, but in that stubborn place where facts, law, and evidence eventually collide.

On this day July 3, the court will tell Ghana whether this was a case of unlawful assignment, unlawful facilitation, or unlawful accusation. Until then, the nation remains suspended between two words - Wontumi or Wobɛtumi.