Police swoop on illegal miners

, destroy $390,000 excavators

Police in the Eastern region are being accused of wrongful seizure and burning of excavators used by small scale miners at Akwabooso.

The task force allegedly set the equipment ablaze during an operation to clamp down on the activities of illegal miners there.

The three excavators said to cost $390,000 belong to the former MP for Akwatia, Kinston Kissi.

Mr. Kissi who is protesting the destruction of his excavators by the anti-galamsey task force, told Joy News the security operation was illegal because the miners had permit to operate.

He said the district police commander for the area has denied knowledge of the incident, alleging that the taskforce came to the area from Accra with petrol purposely to destroy his business.

He called on the police to start investigations into the incident.

Meanwhile, the Eastern Regional Police Commander, ACP Kwabena Gyamerah-Yeboah, told Joy News investigations have begun into the incident.

At the moment, he could not tell whether the excavators were burned by the taskforce or disingenuously by the miners themselves.

In a related development, a police cum military team has arrested 67 galamsey operators in the Diziri Forest Reserve in the Ahafo Ano-North District.

Twenty parcels of substances suspected to be Indian hemp and cocaine as well as other mining equipment were retrieved in the operation.

Regional Police Commander, DCOP Patrick Timbilla told a news conference in Kumasi the exercise marked the beginning of a special operation to clamp down on illegal miners in the region.

He said the activities of the illegal miners have increased pollution in the area, and have also become deathtraps in a number of places they operate.