Flashback: President Akufo-Addo at the company premises
THE APPOINTMENT of Enoch Baah as the new Managing Director of the Great Consolidated Diamonds Ghana Limited (GCDGL) has been rejected by a group calling itself the Akwatia Development Association (ADA).
The group said Mr. Baah lacked the competence to lead the revival of the erstwhile Diamonds Company, which has been taken over by the GCDGL, since he supervised its demise and its accompanying issues.
He was appointed in the wake of a new deal following a promise by President Akufo-Addo to revive the defunct mining company to make it functional to provide employment to the people of the area.
The Vice-President of the group, Kwadwo Obeng Darko, told Citi FM that his group and the people of the area could not “accept the reappointment of Mr. Enoch Baah” as a matter of principle.
“He was appointed as the general manager of the erstwhile Jospong Reconsolidated Diamonds Limited and he supervised a lot. It was during his time that people mined in their houses and on the roads.
“This made our group, the Akwatia Development Association, to raise the alarm. Our belief is that there are a lot of youth in the system. We believe government can appoint any other person but not the same person. It is unacceptable for Mr. Baah to be reappointed,” he argued.
The group had earlier warned that it would not accept any new appointments by the government, which it interpreted to mean a complete take over of operations of the company.
Mr. Darko said the group wanted the government to put up the mine for bid in order to attract “competent investor(s)” for the revival operations.
“Notwithstanding the posture and resolve of government to revive the mines again, the appointment of new management teams after the work of the IMC, only seems to suggest that the government intends to take over the operations of the mines,” the group fumed.
“The Akwatia Development Association would like to draw the government’s attention to promises made to revive the mines. The association strongly recommends that government puts up the mine for tender to enable competent investor(s) to take over the affairs of the company,” the group intimated.
By Ernest Kofi Adu