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Almost three years after some residents of Ada petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), alleging severe human rights violations tied to the Songor Lagoon salt mining lease granted to Electrochem Ghana Limited, the commission is yet to even contact those who filed the petition.
“I feel violated every day thinking about it. We are worried because the abuses continue, and CHRAJ’s silence makes us feel abandoned,” Christiana Morjifah Anim told The Fourth Estate.
Ms Morjifah said she was humiliated during an arrest on August 9, 2021, when police and armed men detained her and 22 others, including three chiefs.
“I was dragged out of the bath house and was arrested in my nakedness in the most undignified manner,” her petition states.
In the petition, other complainants described their harrowing experiences.
Nene Mailo Dadebom Anim II, chief of Toflokpo, suffered a broken arm during a December 16, 2022, raid.
“I was brutally beaten by the police, handcuffed, dragged to the ground,” the petition notes.
Nene Dadebom later told The Fourth Estate that the “injustice I suffered still lingers on my mind. We’ve waited too long for CHRAJ to act. We are dying without anyone being held accountable.”
Michael Lomotey Dameh, also a victim, recounted a midnight raid on June 14, 2021, where he was arrested in his house at gunpoint and subjected to severe beatings, which have left him traumatized.
Speaking to The Fourth Estate, Mr. Dameh expressed deep worry about CHRAJ’s inaction on the petition.
“It’s been three years, and CHRAJ hasn’t even spoken to me,” he says. “I’m still living with the pain and fear. How can we trust the system when it ignores our cries for justice?”
Despite the allegations of delay, CHRAJ told The Fourth Estate that it is investigating the alleged brutalities visited on dozens of residents of Ada who petitioned it in July 2023.
“We wish to inform you that the matter is still under investigation, and in due course, when investigations are concluded, the Commission will report its decision appropriately,” CHRAJ wrote in a response to The Fourth Estate.
The Fourth Estate’s checks, however, show that as of February 2026, no single victim had been engaged on the matter.
Even though the victims petitioned in July 2023, CHRAJ failed to acknowledge receipt of the petition.
The complainants’ lawyer, Samuel Ofosu of Sory@Law, first followed up on September 11, 2023, expressing “utmost concern” over CHRAJ’s silence. CHRAJ responded on February 5, 2024, acknowledging the petition and stating it was ready to begin investigations into the complaints.
The complainants told The Fourth Estate that it was the only time they heard from CHRAJ.
Third World Network (TWN-Africa), an NGO committed to advancing equitable policies and strengthening economic governance for marginalized communities, has expressed deep concern over CHRAJ’s inaction.
“It is a cause for concern for us. We see CHRAJ as one of those bodies that, as citizens, we can trust. The longer it takes, the less information you will get,” Pauline Vande-Pallen, Programme Officer on Gender and Economic Policy and Extractives at TWN-Africa told The Fourth Estate.
“It is a big worry to us and the victims that CHRAJ has not reached out and is just saying that ‘we are still investigating’ without engaging the people in the space. We think that it should not be dragging this long.”
Even though Ms. Vande-Pallen dismissed suggestions of CHRAJ being compromised, she emphasized that CHRAJ can do better in the quest to get justice for victims of human rights in the Songhor case.
“I wouldn’t want to say that CHRAJ has been compromised. Justice delayed is justice denied,” she said.
Background
The petition, submitted on July 14, 2023, by nine complainants from salt mining communities in Ada, detailed a series of brutal incidents involving police, military personnel, and the taskforce of Electrochem, the company granted a salt mining concession in the area.
The complainants, Michael Lomotey Dameh, Numo Abraham Kuku Ayornu, Evans Korley, Joshua Korley, Nene Mailo Dadebom Anim II, Sampson Agbove, Elikana Otu Anim, Bertha Agbovi, and Christiana Morjifah Anim, accused the former Minister of the Interior, Ambrose Dery, the former Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul and the Ghana Police Service of complicity in abuses that included arbitrary arrests, beatings, shootings, and destruction of livelihoods.
They pleaded with CHRAJ to investigate, recommend compensation, and sanction those responsible for the violations of their human rights.
The violations stem from disputes over the 41,000-acre lease awarded to Electrochem, owned by businessman Daniel McKorley, widely known as McDan, in November 2020.
The Songor Lagoon, West Africa’s largest natural salt deposit, has long been a lifeline for local artisanal miners.
However, the lease granted in 2020 sparked an ongoing conflict, with artisanal miners alleging monopolization and forceful evictions from communities, depriving them of their only source of livelihood.
Some incidents the complainants want investigated include indiscriminate shootings on January 27, 2021, injuring protesters; a February 5, 2021, invasion of Salom-Madagber where community members were shot and cut with machetes; an October 22, 2021, attack on Luhuor community that led to the destruction of property.
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