A section of structures in Gbane mining community
Scores of illegal miners and their families have fled while many more are expected to also flee from Gbane, a mining community in the Talensi District in the Upper East Region, to escape from a possible retaliation or swoop by personnel of the Ghana Police Service (GPS).
DAILY GUIDE has learnt that two police officers have been severely beaten by some unknown persons who emerged from nearby bushes between Yameriga and Sheiga, also a mining community in the Talensi District, when a police pick-up was ambushed.
According to reports, the two police officers, together with two other police officers, were assigned to take some 10 suspects to the Bolgatanga Police Station from the Gbane community and as they drove towards Bolgatanga, they were ambushed between Yameriga and Sheiga.
The report continued that in the course of struggling to escape from the attackers, the two police officers who were sitting at the back of the pick-up were left behind and were reportedly beaten.
All 10 suspects onboard the pick-up were, however, brought safely to Bolgatanga and are in police custody while police investigate into the reason for their arrest.
It is not clear if the people who ambushed the police were from Yameriga, Sheiga and nearby communities or Gbane, where the suspects were arrested.
The 10 suspects were arrested on the evening of Monday, November 12, 2018 by security officers working for Shaanxi Mining Support Company in Gbane.
According to the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Shaanxi Mining Support Company, Maxwell Wooma, stealing from the company’s underground tunnels by illegal miners has become a frequent activity, as many illegal miners have connected their pits to the underground tunnels of the company and efforts to stop them seem not to be yielding the desired results.
He said on many occasions the illegal miners engage minors to enter into the pits to steal ores from the company’s underground tunnels and even though they have been spotted and arrested on several occasions, they have been allowed to go because they are minors.
According to Mr. Wooma, on Monday evening as the employees of Shaanxi were going about their operation, they came across the 10 suspects in the company’s tunnels and arrested them and handed them over to the Ghana Police Service at Gbane.
FROM Ebo Bruce-Quansah, Bolgatanga