The mining site in the forest reserve
TWO ILLEGAL miners, including a Chinese, have been apprehended for allegedly mining in the Asenayo forest reserve, near Dawisaso in the Ashanti Region on November 25, 2023.
The two suspects, who have since been identified by the police as Hung Da Zi, a Chinese, 34 years old, and Kwaku Atta, a Ghanaian, 28 years old, are in police custody.
A police report said members of a 38-Rapid Response Team from the Forestry Commission of Ghana on November 22, 2023, gathered that illegal miners had destroyed a huge part of the forest reserve. Armed with this vital information, the team members invaded the Asenayo forest reserve and tried their best to arrest the illegal miners in the forest reserve but they were prevented from doing so.
“On 22/11/2023, upon information gathered, they went into compartment 80 of the Asenayo forest reserve near Dawisaso and met some illegal miners undertaking small scale mining within the forest reserve without their consent.
“That in their attempt to arrest them, six armed men, three wearing face masks, approached them shouting and giving warning shots, hence they left the scene for fear of their lives,” the report stated.
The report, however, said the 38 Rapid Response Team members regrouped and stormed the forest reserve again on November 25, 2023, where they arrested the two suspects and handed them to the police.
“That on today 25/11/2023 at about 1:00pm, they visited the same mining site within same compartment of the same forest reserve, and met the aforementioned suspects and other people busily undertaking small scale mining using two excavator machines.
“They detected that they have uprooted several cedrela and other commercial trees planted by a private developer on about two hectors of the forest.
“That they managed to arrest the two suspects but their accomplices managed to escape, hence, the wanted police action,” part of the police document, sighted by the paper, disclosed.
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi