Operation Vanguard
The Ashanti Regional Police Command is holding three soldiers and four civilians for allegedly conspiring to extort money from four suspected illegal miners at Adakwai, a farming community in the Fomena District of the Ashanti Region.
The suspects are Sgt Ansah Larbi Issac, with serve number 197513; Corporal Frank Acheampong, with service 196613 – both serving soldiers attached to the Base Workshop at Burma Camp in Accra.
The others are WO1 Michael Akapame, Philip Anane, Henry Prempeh, Samuel Bruce, Antwi Maxwell, a journalist and Yaw Mensah, a civilian electrician.
They were said to have held the victims captive in a move akin to kidnapping.
They were arrested on the premises of Cozy Lodge in Kumasi, where they were lodging after information about their purported illegal activities got to Commander Rear Major Sosu at Armed Forces Central Command in Kumasi through Colonel Amoasi, the Commander of Operation Vanguard.
A group of policemen from the Anti-Robbery Unit of the Ghana Police Service earlier picked up WO 1 Michael Akapame, Philip Anane, Henry Prempeh and Samuel Bruce before the others were apprehended.
The Ashanti Regional Police Public Relations Officer (PRO), DSP Juliana Obeng, confirmed the arrest of the suspects, but would not give details, saying her outfit would brief the media.
But DAILY GUIDE gathered from a reliable source that on Sunday, June 3, 2018 the suspects on board a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado vehicle reportedly raided the mining site, claiming to be national security operatives and arrested the four alleged illegal miners namely, Bright Amponsah, 24; Isaac Donkor, 48; Karim Abu, 24; and Opare Maxwell.
The so-called national security operatives allegedly armed with a pistol grabbed the miners, claiming that someone had contracted them from Accra to arrest them for mining on his concession.
“It was gathered that the suspects demanded GH¢20,000 or GH¢10,000 and 10 pounds of gold from one Mr. Aboagye, as the condition for the release of the four alleged miners,” the source said.
The security agencies are not ruling out kidnapping as the suspects reportedly kept the miners at the back of the vehicle for hours waiting for the money they requested to be paid.
WO 1 Akapame reportedly said he was lured into the act by Henry Prempeh, a civilian suspect, and after they assisted him to arrest the miners they disassociated themselves from the other suspects and were waiting to return to Accra.
The soldiers denied requesting for money as a condition for the release of the miners.
From James Quansah, Kumasi