Salt mining company Electrochem Ghana Limited has denied being behind the shooting incident at Tofloko in the Greater Accra region in connection with the Songhor lagoon leading to the death of one person.

“We will like to state emphatically devoid of any equivocation that the company has no hand in the said incident and condemn in no uncertain terms the killings,” management of the salt mining company said in a statement issued on Tuesday, 7 November 2023.

The company indicated that due to the investigations by the police, it would comment on the matter later.

“We are very much aware that the police have taken the issue up and are investigating the case including coming up with the autopsy report. 

“Due to the confidence we have in the Ghana Police Service, we have decided to wait and come out with a more detailed press release on the incident since we will not want to preempt the workings of the police,” the statement added.

A conflict between residents of Sege in the Greater Accra Region and Electrochem Ghana Limited, in connection with the Songhor Lagoon, resulted in the shooting and killing of one person.

About 25 others also sustained injuries.

The onslaught on the local resident was allegedly led by some land guards hired to protect the Electrochem concession from unauthorised people who have been ordered to vacate the area.

The armed land guard allegedly stormed a village called Toflokpo and started attacking people indiscriminately.

The DCE for the area, who attempted intervening, was also beaten to a pulp by the locals, who insist the Lagoon is their source of livelihood and, thus, cannot vacate the concession.

The chief of Toflokpo, Nene Mayilo Dadebom II, told media houses that their decades-old source of livelihood cannot be denied them at a whim.

Electrochem, while admitting using a task force to evict the locals, denied shooting anyone.

Nene Siada, Operations Manager at Electrochem Ghana, told Accra-based Citi FM: “We were on the field when all of a sudden, we heard noises which were from a lot of crowd from the town. We made sure that we protected our equipment and personnel. The people started throwing stones at us.

“I heard Nene saying the police were shooting, but before man and God, there was no shooting. We were trying to protect our concession, and we have made announcements that they should move from that place. No one went there to shoot because our security guys don’t even use guns. We never shot a gun, not even a warning shot.”

“We gladly welcome any other person that wants to do salt business with us, and we have been given fifteen years to mine salt at Ada, and this thing went through the traditional authorities and Parliament, so this thing is legal. We have people who are doing illegal mining there. We have done over ninety-five community engagements and we continue to do engagements. So I don’t understand why someone would say we’ve never engaged the community,” he added.