Miner Drags Top Minerals Commission Official To EOCO … Over Alleged $100k Mine Concession Fraud

A senior officer of the Minerals Commission (MC), a government representative, together with a top management member of the Adamus Resources Limited, have been dragged to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) for questioning by a small scale miner.

Michael Benziecie, the small scale miner, is accusing the top Minerals Commission’s official in particular of defrauding him off $100,000.

According to Michael Benziecie, the three suspects lured him into what turned out to be a fake mining deal that never yielded the required results.

According to Michael Benziecie, he paid the money with the hope of securing access to a gold concession, but after making the payments, nothing came out of the deal and rather faced threats and disappointments.

In the petition to the EOCO, Michael Benziecie explained that the MC top officer personally introduced one of the suspects, who is a lady, to him at the Minerals Commission office, describing her as someone who could help facilitate access to a concession owned by Adamus Resources ?imited.

He said he had no reason to doubt the arrangement at the time, especially given the involvement of such high-level individuals.

The petitioner said he paid the $100,000 in two instalments of $50,000 each. He also paid an additional $10,000 as “facilitation” fee but did not have any access to the site as agreed.

He claims he was blocked by Adamus security guards and confronted by others who said they had been promised the same land.

According to Michael Benziecie, the situation got worse when he tried to seek help by reporting the issue to both the Minerals Commission and the police in Takoradi, but no action was taken.

Frustrated and feeling cheated, he decided to take the matter to EOCO via a petition last year for justice, not only for himself, but for all small-scale miners who are being exploited by people in power.

According to sources close to the investigation, EOCO is now digging into financial records, communication logs and internal documents from both the Minerals Commission and Adamus Resources to determine the full extent of the alleged fraud.

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