Policy analyst, Bright Simons, has clarified that he does not engage in advocacy on behalf of any organisation, following suggestions that he may be biased in the ongoing standoff between Engineers and Planners (E&P) and Azumah Resources.

In a post shared on his X page on Monday, July 14, 2025, Simons set the record straight after an E&P statement suggested that he was siding with Azumah Resources.

“I don't think that there was any doubt about this in the mind of any serious person who has followed my work in the past decade and before. But since E&P, in their formal press statement, suggested that I am somehow biased towards the Azumah side, this statement that I am neither a representative nor an advocate for Azumah and its investors should seal the matter.

"I am an independent analyst working in the public interest and have always been,” he wrote.

Simons further shared his perspective on the involvement of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), taking a different stance from Azumah.

“Contrary to Azumah’s deference, my position is that the ECOWAS Bank must answer to the citizens of ECOWAS, its ultimate shareholders, how it got involved in this acquisition that clearly hadn't happened as announced. And when it clearly knew that an earlier offer had been rejected in May 2024 and that the issues that triggered the rejection remained unresolved,” he said.

Simons expressed hope that the two companies would resolve the impasse amicably.

“All that said, we hope the two parties – E&P and Azumah – find an amicable solution to this bizarre impasse soon. Meanwhile, accountability is a marathon,” he added.

Background

His comments follow escalating tensions between the two companies, with both sides trading accusations over the status of a US$100 million acquisition agreement signed in October 2023.

E&P, in a press statement dated July 8, 2025, rejected what it described as “a deliberate effort to distort facts” surrounding its purchase of Azumah’s Black Volta Gold Project.

The company insisted that the agreement was reached in good faith after Azumah’s shareholders approached them in May 2023 to offload the struggling mine.

According to E&P, the original deal involved a US$100 million purchase price to be paid in two instalments.

The company claimed it assumed all liabilities, including debts exceeding US$5 million owed to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Minerals Commission, and has since invested an average of US$500,000 monthly in maintaining the project.

However, the dispute intensified in August 2024 when Azumah’s director, James Wallbank, allegedly demanded a revised price of US$300 million, citing rising global gold prices. E&P rejected the demand and subsequently initiated arbitration proceedings.

In June 2025, an Accra High Court ruled that Azumah’s attempt to terminate the agreement had no legal effect and ordered that the status quo be maintained.

The July 7, 2025 signing ceremony at the Marriott Hotel, which Azumah publicly distanced itself from, was later clarified by E&P to be a formal agreement between the company and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) for a US$100 million facility to finance the acquisition.

E&P’s Business Development Director, Emmanuel Erskine, stated that the project remains a fully commercial transaction and is not politically motivated.

Meanwhile, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, has issued a seven-day ultimatum to Azumah Resources Ghana Limited and E&P to resolve their ongoing dispute over ownership and control of the Black Volta Gold Project.

Read his post below: