An eyewitness account of what led to burning of suspected robbers at Moseaso

Correspondence from Western Region

The incident that led to the death of a small-scale miner and the subsequent burning of three armed robbers at Moseaso in the Wassa Amenfi West Municipality keeps community folks thinking.

The incident happened on Sunday morning April 16, 2023, when the three-armed robbers gunned down a worker of a small-scale mining company in the area during an operation at a galamsey site.

Community folks heard of a gunshot and went to the scene and realized a community member, Frank Arthur was gunned down.

The news of the incident quickly spread throughout the town, and the community was outraged. They mobilized and launched a manhunt for the robbers. After an intense search, they managed to apprehend three out of the four suspects.

However, instead of turning the suspects over to the authorities, the community members decided to take matters into their own hands and set the robbers ablaze.

According to an eyewitness who was part of the robbery victims, and gave his name as Tikwaa said they were returning from a site with gold “when we got to a curve, we realized they had raised a barrier on the road and two out of four who were wielding guns started shooting into our car. We were in the car but Arthur was in the bucket of the car so he sustained gunshot wounds, without our knowledge."

He continued: “We were ordered out of the car and buried our faces on the ground. So, they went in to take the black(gold) from the car. As they were about to move, they told us that one of our brothers was shot so we should take him to the hospital so we took him into the car to the Moseaso clinic.”



Speaking to GhanaWeb in an interview, the owner of the small-scale mining site, Mr. Richard Adjei said Francis Arthur, 51 was his senior brother and caretaker of the site adding that, “because of my tight schedules, Arthur has been taking care of the site for me ever since we started operations.”

“On that fateful day, Mr. Adjei said he went to see his brother in the morning to inform him that soldiers will be coming to the site so they should go to the site and bring the “black” home.

"I was in the washroom a few minutes when I received a call that Arthur had been shot so I quickly moved my car to the clinic where they were sending him for treatment but when I got there, I realized they were sending him to the Asankragwaa Catholic Hospital rather, so I followed up.

"On our way to the hospital, we met a group of soldiers who also delayed for about thirty minutes, so Frank Arthur was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital," he narrated.

According to Mr. Adjei, robbery incidents have been very rampant in the Moseaso community. These robbers are a group made up of indigenes of Moseaso and Dunkwa in the Central Region. Those who have been burnt were part of six robbers who were imprisoned for three years, came back and are still in the robbery business.

He added that “one of the burnt robbers robbed somebody of his money two months ago and was arrested by police and bailed, but he is still robbing."