The Joint Taskforce on illegal mining, Operation Vanguard has arrested forty-one illegal miners in the Ashanti, Eastern and Western regions on a two-day operation.
The operation which took place on Wednesday and yesterday [Thursday] was carried out together with the Ghana Airforce.
Twenty-one Ghanaians and twenty Chinese were arrested after land and aerial patrol by the team.
Public Operations Officer for the Vanguard, Captain Nathaniel Asamoah, told Citi News, the arrested miners have been arraigned.
“In addition to the land patrol we had an Air Force patrol, in operation, a total of 41 suspected illegal miners were arrested of those arrested 21 were Ghanaians, and 20 were Chinese. Some of them have been to court since the operation and granted bill, but others are yet to go to court,†he said.
A total of ten illegal miners, comprising nine Ghanaians and a Chinese, were arrested last month by the Operation Vanguard taskforce at two separate locations in the Upper Denkyira East district in the Central Region.
One set of the illegal miners, all Ghanaians, was grabbed today (Monday) at Mfanteman when the task-force was on its regular patrol in the area.
They are Joe Afful, Yaw Boakye, Kofi Osei, Antwi Nicholas, Talata Gangiba, Emmanuel Coffie and Mustapha Demon.
As at the end of last month, Operation Vanguard had immobilized over five thousand (5, 000) Chanfangs in the four illegal mining areas it currently operates.
Colonel Amoah Ayisi said a total prohibition would help in the fight against the galamsey menace.
“Somebody would argue that there are other uses for the Changfang, but for now in endemic areas, this is what they are using to destroy water, and so if it is banned in those areas, the police at the barriers can check inflow. So if we can stop the destruction of the river bodies, then later on other measures can be brought in to make sure that the Changfang equipment is not brought in for dredging,†he said.
Source: citinewsroom.com