The Minerals Development Fund (MDF) has vehemently denied viral reports that 33 excavators, confiscated during an anti-illegal mining operation at Akomfre, went missing while in police custody.

It has described the reports as ‘false’ and inaccurate, stating that the Administrator of the MDF, Dr Hanna Bisiw-Kotei, was misquoted and that the claims do not reflect what actually happened during the operation.

“The Minerals Development Fund (MDF) is issuing this statement to correct fundamentally inaccurate media reports suggesting that 33 excavators went missing from police custody and to provide a factual account of the events in Akomfre. The narrative created by recent publications, which misquoted our Administrator, Dr Hanna Bisiw-Kotei, is false,” portions of the statement read.

Setting the record straight in a statement dated July 3, 2025, the Fund stated that no excavators had gone missing. It explained that upon the team’s arrival at the illegal mining site in Akomfre, 40 excavators were actively being used by illegal miners.

However, when the team returned the following day, after arrangements were made for law enforcement to seize and secure the machinery, only seven excavators remained on site, indicating that 33 had been removed by the illegal miners.

“Upon arrival, the team unearthed a fleet of approximately 40 excavators actively engaged in widespread environmental degradation. Recognising the scale of the illicit operation, the MDF staff took decisive action, immediately halting the activities to arrest the pervasive destruction.

“The MDF Administrator subsequently liaised with law enforcement to arrange for the formal seizure and custody of the machinery the next day. It must be emphasised that MDF officers lacked the manpower capacity to haul the machines at the time of discovering the illegal mining site,” the statement continued.

It indicated that, “However, upon the arrival of law enforcement officers at the remote site the following morning, it was discovered that about 33 of the excavators had been surreptitiously removed overnight.”

The statement stressed that the police never had custody of the 40 excavators, as widely reported, stating emphatically that only seven were seized and remain in custody.

“Therefore, to be unequivocally clear: the police never had custody of 40 excavators. The seven excavators that remained at the site were the only machines officially seized by law enforcement officers. No excavators have gone missing from police care.”

The statement is in response to widely circulated reports that 33 excavators, which were in police custody after an anti-galamsey operation, had disappeared.

This followed an interview on Adom FM by Dr Hanna Bissiw-Kotei, who also serves as the National Women’s Organiser of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), in which she disclosed that only seven excavators remained when her team returned the following morning.

“We handed over 40 excavators to the police, but when we returned the next morning, only seven were left. I spoke with the Police Commander about the incident because I was unhappy with it. Right now, the seven we managed to recover are being held,” she said.



MAG/MA

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