The Police CID has assured that they will get to the bottom of the missing excavators saga after arresting six persons including suspended Central Regional Vice-Chair, Ekow Ewusi.
This comes after the Police Service issued a statement announcing the arrest of six (6) persons for their involvement in the missing excavators and other equipment seized by operatives of Operation Vanguard yesterday February 4 2020.
Speaking on Starr FM today PRO of the CID, Juliana Obeng said, “Investigations has started and CID will get to the end of this matter. Again, the missing excavators will be found and persons in connection with it will be dealt with by the law”.
The suspects have since been cautioned and are in police custody pending further investigations.
The six persons arrested so far are; Horace Ekow Ewusi, Frederick Ewusi, Joel Asamoah, Adnan Haruna, Frank Gyan and John Arhin.
However, on Monday, February 3, 2020, the CID picked up Mr Ekow Ewusi, who is one of the leaders of Operation Vanguard, for interrogation over his role in the missing excavators and other equipment seized from illegal miners.
His arrest was triggered by a request from the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology & Innovation, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, to the Director-General, CID Headquarters, Accra, to commence investigations into the missing excavators and some other equipment.
It will be recalled that, with the quest to fight against illegal mining between 2017 and 2018, many machines numbering about 500 were seized by the Operation Vanguard, an operational team made up of various security personnel purposely set up to clamp down on illegal mining.
The then sector Minister, Mr John Peter Amewu who sanctioned the seizure directed them to be parked at the premises of the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).
Recently, the Minister for Environment, Science, Technology & Innovation and also Chairperson of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng disclosed recently that most of the excavators that were seized from illegal miners had vanished.