Concerned Ada chiefs, former PIAC Chairman file separate lawsuits to stop Electrochem salt project

Some Concerned Ada stalwarts have filed suit challenging the operations of ElectroChem Ghana Limited.

The reliefs sought by the lawsuit, if granted will injunct Daniel Mckorley's ElectroChem Ghana Limited from farming solar sea salt in Ada District of the Greater Accra Region.

Aside from the earlier lawsuit by the former Public Interest and Accountability Committee(PIAC) Chairman, Mr. Noble Wadza and the chief of Aminapah, Nene Amartey Korley, a private citizen, and four other chiefs of Ada have also filed two separate lawsuits seeking an injunction to stop Electrochem Ghana Limited from mining salt at Ada.

The suit of three chiefs at the High Court is seeking among other reliefs, a declaration of the lease granted to Electrochem as illegal.

Also,the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, State Interest and Governance Authority (SIGA), Minerals Commission, and the Ada East District Assembly have been joined as parties in the plaintiffs' case.

The plaintiffs’ case is anchored on the grounds that the Electrochem deal was in gross violation of PNDC Law 287 and the Master Plan for the development of the salt industry in the Ada area.

They are also affirming that the lease,if allowed,a will be an affront to the rights of indigenes who have lived within the Songhor Salt enclave for centuries.

The suit is also accusing Electrochem Ghana Limited of violating some terms of the lease agreement.

PIAC former Chairman’s case

In the suit filed before an Accra High Court, Mr Wadzah, the PIAC former Chairman said the legal action was prompted by a letter from the district assembly directing salt miners on the Ada Songhor Lagoon site to vacate by December 31, 2023.

He wants a judicial review of the lease agreement and a declaration by the court that the Electrochem lease is illegal, particularly when the company’s obligations in the lease do not conform with PNDC Law 287 and the Master Plan.

Mr. Wadzah argues that Electrochem was required by the lease agreement to pay GHS2.3 million, which is 10% of the offer price of the lease as a deposit by August 31, 2021.

However, he disclosed that court documents show that it was not until September 7, 2021, that Mr Daniel McKorley, Executive Chairman of the McDan Group wrote to the branch manager of ADB Head Office, to request the transfer of the said amount to SIGA to deposit on behalf of Electrochem, a subsidiary of the McDan Group.

Mr Wadzah also argues in his lawsuit that failure to make the deposit by the agreed date meant that Electrochem was in breach of the lease agreement.

Further, Mr Wadzah stated that President Nana Akufo-Addo, who holds the Songhor Lagoon salt deposits in trust for the owners, has the authority to ensure that the salt is mined, and the salt industry developed in compliance with PNDC Law 287.

SALT

President Akufo-Addo the commissioning  of the Electrochem Project in August last year said a cursory look at Electrochem’s business plan showed that it had no plans to operate with the master plan for the area but rather to completely marginalize and eliminate small-scale mining at the lagoon site.

“The Interested Party’s [Electrochem] acts of impunity have been fueled by the failure of the second and third respondents [Minerals Commission and SIGA] to ensure that the lease granted to the Interested Party and the divestiture respectively were granted by the law,” he added.

Chiefs’ suit

The case of the four chiefs is that they and their community stand to suffer greater hardship and irreparable damage if the Minerals Commission, the Ada East Assembly, and Electrochem are not restrained from their lands until the final determination of the case.

In their case filed before the Tema High Court on January 17, 2024, the chiefs claim that the government knew that the Terkpebiawe clan owned the Songhor Lagoon.

According to the chiefs, although they had responded to a notice published by the Minerals Commission, indicating that their lives could be affected by the lease, the government failed to consult the principal members of the Terkpebiawe Clan and rather went ahead to grant the lease to Electrochem on October 29, 2020.

Miners

The Artisanal salt miners in Ada say they’ve mined the commodity in the Songhor lagoon for centuries but are being ejected because of Electrochem decrying, “Our villages fall within the concession area and we the indigenes of the villages have put up properties in the said areas. The properties in these villages include houses, schools, churches, and other structures put up by the indigenes for commercial activities,” they clarified.

The chiefs noted that although the Ada East District Assembly knew of the concession granted to Electrochem, it kept issuing business permits to indigenes to win salt.

The permits gave the indigenes the green light to put up structures and buy machines to facilitate their salt-winning activities.

“The defendants are aware of the fact that Parliament is re-examining the agreement between the State and the third defendant [Electrochem] but the defendants continue to intimidate and oppress the indigenes with the sole purpose of getting them out of their land even though they have not put in place any plan of resettling them,” the plaintiffs said.

Citing an example of the harassment their communities were suffering, the chiefs said on December 14, 2023, the district assembly “ordered all persons occupying the lands within concession area to vacate the land for the third defendant [Electrochem].”