Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako, popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, will spend the night in police custody.

This was after failing to meet a ₵25 million bail imposed in two separate cases before the Criminal Division of the High Court in Accra.

Earlier today, in the day he was placed on a stop list and granted GH₵15 million bail after pleading not guilty to six mining-related charges.

• Read also: Wontumi pleads not guilty to all 7 charges in fresh illegal mining case, granted GH₵10m bail

This follows six criminal charges filed against him by the Office of the Attorney-General over alleged breaches of Ghana’s mining laws.

He is accused of assigning mineral rights without approval and facilitating unlicensed mining activities.

Wontumi, who appeared before the court alongside Akonta Mining Company Limited, his firm, pleaded not guilty to all six counts. A second accused person, Kwame Antwi, is currently at large.

Later in the day, Chairman Wontumi pleaded not guilty to another seven charges levelled against him and four others over alleged illegal mining activities in the Tano Nimire Forest Reserve at Samreboi in the Western Region.

This forms part of a second criminal case filed against him, in which Wontumi and others are accused of undertaking mining operations without a licence, felling trees, and erecting structures within a forest reserve.

After hearing submissions from both the prosecution and defence, the court admitted Chairman Wontumi to bail in the sum of GH₵10 million with two sureties, one of whom must justify with landed property.

However, these conditions have not been met, and he will be spending custody.

Meanwhile, Chairman Wontumi has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.