A simmering war between former Attorney-General Godfred Yeboah Dame and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has erupted into the open, with The New Republic obtaining explosive correspondence that exposes a desperate attempt by Dame to strangulate a criminal investigation just weeks before the Ministry dropped the hammer on the very company he was defending.
The clash centres on a July 14, 2026 letter in which Dame, now private counsel to Ms. Angela Attieh (formerly Angela List) and four co-accused, wrote to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to aggressively block a police inquiry into Adamus Resources Limited.
In that missive, Dame deployed a familiar arsenal of technicalities: the share transfer was a civil matter, the complainant lacked legal standing, and the police should stay their hand.
But while Dame was busy weaving his corporate smokescreen at the CID, the Minerals Commission was quietly assembling a devastating dossier on Adamus’ field operations one that completely demolishes Dame’s portrayal of a clean, legitimate outfit.
The investigation into allegations of fraud, forgery, and unlawful takeover of Adamus’ mining assets was first lodged in July 2024. Yet the CID, did not issue a single invitation to Ms List until June 8, 2026 a gap of nearly two years.
Why the delay? The New Republic has uncovered a web of personal ties that raises serious questions about institutional integrity. COP Donkor and Angela List are former classmates at Wesley Girls’ High School; Donkor and Godfred Dame are law-school contemporaries. Insiders confirm that the police chief and the former AG are long-time friends.
“Every time the file came up for action, it was pushed to the bottom of the pile,” a senior officer told The New Republic. “Orders from the top. We knew it was a dead file.”
On August 12, 2026, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, through Communications Director Zambaga Rufai Saminu, issued a press release that effectively lifted the lid on Adamus’ true operations. The reasons for revoking the mining leases are precisely the kind of unlawful disregard for due process that Dame’s letter attempts to obscure:
· Mining outside approved and permitted areas a direct violation of Regulation 200(1)(b) of the Minerals and Mining Regulations. In plain language: Adamus was running a full-blown Galamsey empire beyond its legal boundaries.
· Failure to comply with statutory and regulatory requirements undermining the framework meant to ensure safe, responsible mining.
· Outstanding financial defaults brazenly ignoring fiscal obligations to the state.
Dame’s July 14 letter was a thinly veiled bid to freeze any criminal liability for his clients. He argued that the matter was purely a “share transfer dispute” pending before the Commercial High Court, and that investigating would “undermine the authority” of the court.
But the Ministry’s August 12 release delivers a direct, humiliating rebuttal: “The decision was taken following findings by the Minerals Commission of consequential breaches of Ghana’s mining laws, regulatory requirements and financial obligations.”
The Ministry even had to slap down rumours that the revocation was a government plot to sell the assets insisting it was “not a decision to sell Adamus Resources Limited or its assets to another investor.” Yet the very language suggests a concern that someone might be angling for a sweetheart deal.
Dame’s letter studiously avoids any mention of Adamus’ actual operational conduct on the ground. It reads as a cynical attempt to wrap a criminal enterprise in the robes of corporate law. His clients face the music not over a petty share transfer, but over flagrant mining on unauthorised lands a direct assault on Ghana’s sovereignty over its gold belt.
While the ex-AG tried to lawyer his way out of accountability through a civil court technicality, the Ministry was already red-flagging the very real environmental and fiscal crimes being committed in the bush.
The stress in Dame’s letter is palpable a frantic, last-ditch effort to pre-empt the inevitable regulatory axe. But the Ministry’s firm, unequivocal stance has handed him a crushing defeat. By trying to banter his way past the Minister with procedural noise, Dame has exposed his own clients’ unlawful disregard for due process.
The message from the Lands Ministry is crystal clear: corporate legal technicalities will never be allowed to obscure the reality of illegal mining on Ghanaian soil. Adamus Resources, once a licensed miner, has been rightly unmasked for what its operations made it a rogue Galamsey empire. As the Minister declared: “Ghana’s mineral resources belong to the people of Ghana, and their exploitation must be conducted within the law and in the greater national interest.”
The former AG’s letter may have dazzled on paper, but the Minerals Commission’s boots on the ground and the CID’s two-year foot-dragging tell a far more damning story. The shell-game is over. Now, Ghanaians deserve to know who was really shuffling the cups.
