Residents complain against MNG Gold company

Residents of Kokoyah District in Bong County are appealing to the Liberian government through the Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy to revisit the concession agreement between government and Mining Company MNG Gold.

The residents are alleging that the Company has started operating in almost every part of Kokoyah and allegedly making it difficult for them to have access to fertilize farming land in the region.

They allege that the Company recently sent testing machines to a nearby forest where they intended making farm in the next season, claiming that it will be difficult because they have started caring on deforestation.

Our correspondent says the residents have planned to meet the Mining Inspector in the District to channel their concern. “They have started digging all over this place and that alone is serving as serious embarrassment when it comes to farming, so we want the government to quickly intervene [in] the situation by mandating those guys to operate to specific area,” Oldpa Henry Flomoyahn told our correspondent.

Mr. Flomoyahn said if the government through the Lands Mine Ministry doesn’t quickly intervene, they will be left with no alternative but to plan a demonstration against the Mining operators.

“The Company is not even working to ensure its social and corporate responsibilities, but just to jump from place to place and damage all of our farming lands,” he alleges.

When Contacted about the residents’ concern, Lloyd Nwayah stated that the allegation levied against the Company is not true, adding that the MNG Gold is operating to its mandatory area in the region.

“If we should go to another area, then it needs to be an agreement signed by the Company and the Liberian government but not to do it on our own as the citizens are saying,” he says.

He says he never wanted to respond to this, but the speculation is becoming worse so there is a need that he makes the public to understand. He has called on the Ministry of Lands and Mines Ministry to give deaf ears to the speculation on grounds that it has no iota of truth.

By Joseph Titus Yekeryan in Bong–Edited by Winston W. Parley