Accra, Ghana- May, 2026
Mr Simon Yaw Awadzi, the Executive Chairman of the Coalition for Integrity in Governance-Ghana (COFIIG-GHANA), has strongly defended President John Dramani Mahama against allegations of conflict of interest in relation to the recent transition of the Damang Mine concession to Engineers & Planners (E&P), describing a petition reportedly submitted to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) as weak, speculative, and largely irrelevant when examined against the full historical facts.
In an open letter addressed to the CHRAJ Commissioner, Hon. Awadzi argued that public discourse surrounding the Damang Mine takeover has largely ignored the historical and operational realities that preceded the transition, thereby creating what he described as a misleading political narrative aimed at portraying the arrangement as a family-driven transaction due to the relationship between President Mahama and businessman Ibrahim Mahama, Chief Executive Officer of Engineers & Planners.
According to him, a careful assessment of the mine’s operational history shows that the Damang Mine was previously operated by Abosso Goldfields Limited, a subsidiary largely controlled by the South African multinational mining company, Gold Fields. He explained that the company assumed control of the mine around January 2002 following the acquisition of majority interest in the Damang operations by Gold Fields and Repadre Capital Corporation.
He further detailed that the ownership structure at the time included Gold Fields as the majority shareholder, IAMGOLD as a minority shareholder, and the Government of Ghana holding a statutory 10 percent interest. IAMGOLD, a Canadian mining company, later exited the Ghanaian mining operations entirely in 2011 after divesting its shares to Gold Fields, leaving the South African company as the dominant operator of the Damang Mine for several years.
Hon. Awadzi stressed that Engineers & Planners did not emerge suddenly as part of a new political arrangement under President Mahama’s current administration. Rather, he stated that the Ghanaian-owned company had maintained a long-standing operational presence at the Damang Mine as a mining contractor and heavy earthmoving support company years before eventually becoming lease holders.
He noted that discussions concerning the future of the mining lease reportedly began around 2023 and 2024 as the existing Gold Fields lease approached expiration, insisting that the process predates President Mahama’s return to office and therefore cannot reasonably be interpreted as a sudden, politically motivated arrangement.
“For these reasons, the Damang Mine transition should not simply be reduced to a family affair or automatically labelled as a conflict of interest merely because Ibrahim Mahama is the brother of President John Dramani Mahama,” portions of the letter stated.
The COFIIG-GHANA Executive Chairman also expressed concern over what he described as attempts by some individuals to gain political relevance through petitions and allegations that, in his view, are disconnected from Ghana’s broader developmental and economic priorities.
He cautioned against politicizing indigenous participation in Ghana’s mining sector and warned against creating divisions along ethnic or regional lines in national conversations surrounding economic empowerment and resource ownership.
“My humble advice to the petitioner is that one should never allow political ambition or partisan interest to create the impression that Ewes or people from the Volta Region are enemies of Ghana’s progress or indigenous economic advancement,” he stated.
Hon. Awadzi maintained that the Damang Mine transition appears to have been influenced primarily by factors such as the expiration of Gold Fields’ mining lease, government policy directions encouraging greater indigenous participation in the extractive sector, and the extensive operational involvement of Engineers & Planners at the mine over several years.
While acknowledging CHRAJ as one of Ghana’s most respected constitutional institutions with the mandate to investigate matters of public concern, he argued that petitions and public discussions of such magnitude must remain grounded in evidence, fairness, due process, and objective national interest rather than speculation, propaganda, or emotional political commentary.
He concluded by stating that, based on the publicly available facts and historical records surrounding the Damang Mine operations, the allegations reportedly raised in the petition do not currently appear to establish any clear constitutional wrongdoing against President Mahama.
