The Alliance for Gbane Development, a registered association of natives of Gbane, a mining community in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region, has raised concerns over growing insecurity and threats to lives and property resulting from the actions of a popular small-scale miner.
The Association, with the support of the Chief and opinion leaders of Gbane, youth leaders, and Assembly Members, said recent actions by Zongdaan Boyak Kolog, a small-scale miner known popularly as Poloo, are a threat to the safety, peace, and stability of the Gbane Mining Site area.
According to them, some armed men linked to factions in the Bawku conflict are being hired by the embattled small-scale miner and brought into the community to protect a concession he claims to own, although the area has been leased to a large-scale mining company.
“On January 25th and 26th, 2025, Poloo, in the company of his associates, some of whom are strongly believed to be armed bandits from Bawku, visited the community mining area and, without any provocation, fired gunshots sporadically, leading to people doing legitimate businesses running for their lives,” the group told journalists at a press briefing in Gbane.
They further stated that “as if that were not enough, Poloo, for the second time, organized a group of armed bandits again, believed to have been hired from Bawku to protect what he claims to be his mining concession here in Gbane. Ladies and gentlemen of the press, we wish to state clearly, based on our checks with state agencies regulating the mining sector, that Poloo has no valid lease or concession anywhere in Gbane. The lease he has been holding onto is currently not valid and, for want of a better word, non-existent. He proceeded to disregard sound advice and caution from law enforcement institutions and brought in a group acting under his influence to violently claim a concession. It is on record and widely publicized that eight of these thugs were arrested on May 31, 2025, by a combined team of police and military with heavy weapons and ammunition. That matter is again before the High Court in Bolgatanga.”
In an urgent call for action to be taken by appropriate state institutions and stakeholders to avert a violent escalation in the area, the Alliance for Gbane Development, among other demands, called on the government, through the Minerals Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency, to affirm through the issuance of a public notice that the small-scale miner does not own any mining concession in Gbane.
“We respectfully and humbly call on His Royal Majesty, Tongraan, to invite the Yameriga chief and his elders and admonish them to caution their son. We believe that if he has any modicum of respect for family and traditional authority, he may not repeat these acts in the future,” they added.
While applauding state security agencies for their swift actions in arresting Poloo and his associates for the violent incidents and for illegal possession of arms at the Gbane Mining site, they served notice that “the youth of Gbane will prepare adequately against any intended third visit by this group.”
BACKGROUND:
On January 26, 2025, Poloo was arrested together with some armed bandits whom he had reportedly hired from Bawku to help him fight and protect a mining concession in Gbane.
Police prosecutors told the court that Zongdan Boyak Kolog, aka Poloo, mobilized the other suspects and transported them to the mining site to warn some townsfolk who are currently mining in an area he claims as his concession. In what appears to be a stern warning, not only to the young men working at the site at the time of his visit, Poloo extended his warning to the Chief of the area, Naba Zoarezug Tiibaalug Kumbangkpem, whom he suspected had given approval for natives of the town to mine in the concession.
Prosecutors told the court that Poloo threatened to shoot and kill anyone he found on the concession, including beheading the Chief and Tindaana of the area if they dared step foot on the litigated concession. The threat was reaffirmed by suspect Baba-Yaro Zumah, who had accompanied Poloo on that mission.
It further emerged in court that on January 26, 2025, the suspects, who on this occasion were armed, returned to Gbane ostensibly to carry through their threat. Prosecutors further told the court that the suspects fired gunshots sporadically from a Range Rover SUV, which they were driving.
Again, on May 31, 2025, eight persons were arrested in a joint police and military operation for unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition in Gbane. The suspects were rounded up following intelligence that they had been brought into the community by Zongdan Boyak Kolog, popularly known as Poloo, to provide illegal security for a mining concession he claims to own.
The arrested individuals were identified as Masawudu Adam, 33; Yussif Zakari, 26; Abass Nashiru, 18; Abunkrugu James, 19; Abdulai Mbelba, 18; Abdulai Aziz, 32; Yussif Mbelba, 46; and Nicholas Yin, 45.
Security sources said the joint police and military team conducted a thorough search of a house belonging to the embattled small-scale miner and discovered the arms and ammunition concealed in one of the rooms.
Items retrieved included one AK-47 rifle, a pump-action gun, various categories of cartridges, and other offensive weapons.
Poloo was subsequently arrested and arraigned before the Bolgatanga High Court. He was remanded into police custody to reappear on June 18, 2025.
