Simon Osei Mensah
ASHANTI Regional Minister Simon Osei Mensah has seized equipment and instruments that were being used for illegal mining (galamsey) activities by some miscreants at Fahiakobo in the Amansie West District of the region.
They include a generator set, water pumping machine, chamfan machines, among others, and were confiscated from one Kwaku Ofori.
The 29-year-old suspected galamsey operator and his cohorts were spotted by the regional minister and his entourage on their way to inspect a road construction project on Monday.
Press secretary to the minister, Gabriel Amoah, who confirmed this, told DAILY GUIDE that Kwaku Ofori hid in one of the galamsey pits, while other members of the gang fled the scene when Mr. Osei Mensah and his retinue were approaching the site.
According to the press secretary, an attempt was made to arrest Kwaku Ofori but he was eventually left off the hook because there was no space to accommodate him in any of the official vehicles.
However, his mining equipment and tools – considered to be instruments of crime – were seized and taken to Kumasi.
The minister had earlier told an Accra-based radio station – Peace FM – that he spotted the head of the suspected galamsey gang when he was returning from his inspection tour, which aroused his curiosity and suspicion of a possible illegal act at the mining site.
“The mining site is at the roadside so when we were passing, I saw his head and therefore became suspicious. So I, together with my men, went to the place. When we got there, we realized that they were many but I think that upon seeing us, they absconded, leaving the man to his own fate. We arrested him and also confiscated the equipment and or machinery they were using,” Mr. Osei Mensah narrated.
For him, his action was complementary to the efforts by the Lands and Natural Resources Minister, John Peter Amewu, to save the country’s environment and water bodies from being destroyed by galamsey activities.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi