The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, has been released from police custody after satisfying bail conditions totaling GH₵25 million in two separate illegal mining cases.
Wontumi had spent three nights behind bars after initially failing to meet the bail requirements imposed by the Criminal Division of the High Court in Accra on October 7.
In the first case, the court granted him GH₵15 million bail with two sureties. A second court later imposed an additional GH₵10 million bail, also with two sureties, one of which must be backed by landed property.
As part of the bail conditions, the court directed that the NPP chairman report to investigators once every week for the first month. He has also been barred from traveling outside the country without prior approval.
The embattled politician faces multiple charges, including unlawfully undertaking mining operations and facilitating environmental destruction in the Tano Nimire Forest Reserve.
Chairman Wontumi has, however, pleaded not guilty to all charges.
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