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Six persons have reportedly been killed after an illegal mining (galamsey) pit collapsed on them on Wednesday at Adum Banso, a farming community in the Mpohor District of the Western Region.
DAILY GUIDE learnt that the six alleged illegal miners were trapped in the huge galamsey pit after it caved in at about 3:00pm.
According to sources, the lifeless bodies of four out of the six persons were later retrieved with an excavator and deposited at a private morgue pending autopsy.
The District Chief Executive (DCE) for the area, Ignatius Assar Mensah, explained that the area where the illegal mining activities took place is located deep in a forest which is hard to reach and which had made it easy for the miners to conduct their illegal activities unnoticed.
He said according to the chiefs and the assembly members in the area, six persons were trapped but four of the bodies had been retrieved while efforts were ongoing to retrieve the remaining two.
“We questioned the owner of the site why he gave the area to the galamsey operators and he said he even did not know how they got to place since it is a hard-to-reach area and had even stopped going there to farm,” the DCE revealed.
The DCE said it was worrying that in spite of all the education and warning against illegal mining, some people would continue to defy directives and go into the forest to mine.
“We have consistently been advising the youth of the town on the ban placed on illegal mining but some recalcitrant youth in the area continued to engage in galamsey,” he said.
According to him, some sites in the area had been earmarked for the government’s community mining programme and that the assembly had begun the processes to officially start the programme, but said “some recalcitrant youth have decided to sneak to some of the sites to mine illegally.”
Some of the residents have claimed that they heard about the disaster and tried to assist but it was a difficult task and had to report to the police.
There are also rumours that the victims might be from other areas.
They also confirmed that four of the bodies were first retrieved and put on a tricycle to the town where an ambulance later conveyed them to the morgue.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi