"From PR Spin to Hard Evidence: Why E&P Now Owns Azumah"

" \r\n \t From PR Spin to Hard Evidence: Why E&P Now Owns Azumah \r\n \r\nAt the heart of the takeover of Azumah Resources Ghana Ltd lies an honestly simple question: who really owns the company? \r\n\r\nNorvanReports has sighted incorporation records showing that Azumah Resources Ghana Ltd was registered at the Registrar-General\u2019s Department with a stated capital of GH\u20b526,190.53. That figure am sure, all of us and many who can check will know that it is far below the US$1 million minimum threshold required under Ghanaian law for foreign-owned companies . By law and logic, then, Azumah was registered as a Ghanaian-owned company, not as the foreign-controlled entity its former controllers now claim it to be.\r\n\r\nIf Azumah was Ghanaian, as the Registrar\u2019s records suggest, then the transfer of shares from Ghanaian beneficial owners to Engineers & Planners (E&P) on 3 September 2025 was lawful. Yet Azumah\u2019s overseas promoters, led by Australian businessman James Wallbank , insist otherwise. The contradiction goes to the heart of Ghana\u2019s mining credibility and raises troubling questions about misrepresentation, lobbying, and the use of public relations in place of proper legal processes.\r\n\r\nThe filings at the Registrar-General\u2019s Department are clear. They show the allotment of 93.4 million shares in Azumah Resources Ghana Ltd and 3 million shares in Upwest Resources Ltd to Engineers & Planners. From a regulatory perspective, ownership has changed hands.\r\n\r\nYet within days of the filings, a press release emerged from a London-based PR agency denying that any takeover had occurred. The statement, circulated on Azumah letterhead but unsigned by any company officer, claimed E&P had unlawfully seized the concessions. It threatened billion-dollar arbitration claims against Ghana and painted a picture of regulatory breakdown.\r\n\r\nE&P\u2019s lawyer, Bobby Banson , has dismissed the release as meaningless.\r\n\r\n \u201cIt must be a named officer of the company before such a statement can be ascribed to Azumah. A PR firm\u2019s signature does not overturn filings at the Registrar of Companies,\u201d Banson said in an interview.\r\n\r\nHis point is difficult to dispute. Corporate governance rests on filings and official signatures, not on outsourced press campaigns.\r\n\r\nThe GH\u20b526,190.53 capital figure casts a long shadow over James Wallbank\u2019s Australian Azumah\u2019s denials. If the company had genuinely been foreign-owned, as he and his allies have suggested, it would have been legally impossible to register with so little capital. Ghana\u2019s laws are explicit: foreign-owned firms must register with a minimum of US$1 million, especially since this is also a mining firm.\r\n\r\nThe contradiction raises suspicions of deliberate misrepresentation. Why claim foreign ownership when the Registrar\u2019s books show otherwise? Why rely on activists and PR firms rather than presenting evidence of beneficial ownership to regulators?\r\n\r\nReliable sources have told NorvanReports that when pressed on who actually owned Azumah, Wallbank and his associates pointed vaguely to \u201csome Americans\u201d. But when confronted again with the Registrar filings, they reportedly retreated from the discussion.\r\n\r\nAt one stage, the group is said to have approached one of Ghana\u2019s most respected mining figures to mediate. Yet when asked to identify the real beneficial owners, the story shifted once more. Such evasions deepen the mystery and raise the stakes for Ghanaian regulators.\r\n\r\nMy good friend Bright Simons amplified Azumah\u2019s denials, casting the dispute as evidence of corporate overreach. But the reliance on press statements, tweets, and activist platforms has done little to resolve the underlying ownership question. If anything, it has highlighted the weakness of the case being made.\r\n\r\nBy relying on PR firms and public opinion rather than legal officers and documentation, Mr Wallbank and his partners risk undermining the very credibility they claim to defend. Business disputes are settled in registries, courts, and arbitration panels, not in press releases crafted in London.\r\n\r\nOn the other side, Engineers & Planners has been consistent. Its filings are in order, its transfer of shares is recorded, and it has positioned itself as both willing and able to assume Azumah Ghana\u2019s obligations.\r\n\r\n \u201cWe have taken over all of Azumah Resources\u2019 assets and liabilities. We expect them to make available all relevant documents so we can facilitate payments,\u201d Banson said.\r\n\r\nE&P has invited creditors to present verified claims, pledged to work with the Ghana Revenue Authority to audit debts, and committed to clearing all legitimate liabilities. The company argues that its track record as one of West Africa\u2019s largest mining contractors gives it the technical capacity to move swiftly into development.\r\n\r\n \u201cThey followed due process, and there was no objection from the Minerals Commission. All legal requirements have been fulfilled by E&P,\u201d Banson added.\r\n\r\nPerhaps the most telling verdict has come not from lawyers or lobbyists but from the workers on the ground in Ghana\u2019s Upper West Region. News of E&P\u2019s takeover was greeted with jubilation. Employees staged a spontaneous celebration, enskinning one Hector as \u201cKing of Patience\u201d and hailing four senior staff as the \u201cFour Angels who brought the Good News.\u201d \r\n\r\nFor communities that have waited years for promised development, the symbolism was powerful. Where others had delayed and disputed, E&P\u2019s arrival was seen as the beginning of jobs, investment, and progress.\r\n\r\nFrom where I sit in this dispute is a broader test for Ghana\u2019s institutions. Will regulators and courts give weight to official filings and corporate law, or will they allow press campaigns and lobbying to muddy ownership?\r\n\r\nThe stakes are not just legal but reputational. If documented transfers can be nullified by PR firms and shifting claims of foreign ownership.\r\n\r\nFor James Wellbeck and his partners, questions now mount:\r\n \r\n \t Why was Azumah registered with GH\u20b526,000 if it was truly foreign-owned? \r\n \t Why rely on PR agencies and civil society activists instead of company officers and regulators? \r\n \t Why invoke \u201csome Americans\u201d as beneficial owners when the Registrar\u2019s books suggest otherwise? \r\n \t Why run from the evidence when confronted by Ghanaian authorities? \r\n \r\nUntil these questions are answered, the credibility of James and his partner\u2019s denials will remain in doubt.\r\n\r\nThe lesson from this saga is simple. In Ghana, ownership is established in law and filings, not in press releases. E&P has the documents, the regulatory compliance, and now the social license of workers who have waited too long.\r\n\r\nIf Engineers & Planners can follow through by settling debts, mobilizing capital, and building out Black Volta and Sankofa, it will not only vindicate its acquisition but mark a turning point for indigenous participation in Ghana\u2019s mining industry.\r\n\r\nThe real test is not whether E&P owns Azumah; the Registrar\u2019s books already say it does. The test is whether Ghana\u2019s institutions can hold firm against noise, enforce its own laws, and support those willing to invest responsibly. For now, the answer from Wa\u2019s jubilant workers is clear. They have crowned a King of Patience and four Angels of Good News. It is time for the regulators, too, to recognise where the evidence points.\r\n\r\n "

"From PR Spin to Hard Evidence: Why E&P Now Owns Azumah"

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