5 Illegal Miners Face Law Court Tomorrow

Five notorious illegal miners have been arrested by the crack members of the national security taskforce in Obuasi, and are due to be arraigned before a court in Kumasi on Tuesday.

They have been on the wanted list of the taskforce for some time, but were finally arrested by   the National Security Taskforce, operating under the commandership of Lt Joshua Barnie Oduro in the Obuasi mine, an unauthorised area reserved for the movement of AngloGold Ashanti (AGA) trucks and materials.

Always armed with machetes and guns, the illegal miners have always been invading the AngloGold Ashanti concession, both surface and underground, with their gangs in the past years, stealing ore.

The area is fenced with metal panels for safety reasons, but the illegal miners manage to intrude the area to gain access to the underground

Genuine attempts to arrest them and end their nefarious activities, since March this year when President John Mahama announced his initiative to flush out illegal miners from the mining communities last March, proved futile.

The operation to remove these illegally miners has not been fully successful due to the networks and connections of the small scale miners, which always put them ahead of National Security.

Information gathered indicates that these illegal miners often boasted of their relationships with some elements of the local police and other security agencies and politicians, who, they claimed, always tip them with vital information for their safety.

The Obuasi team, headed by the Deputy Superintendent of the Obuasi Municipal Police Command, Commander Asante, who is supposed to lead the police prosecution, would not confirm or deny the arrest, but reliable sources, who called for anonymity, generously confirmed the  arrest of the five illegal miners, who were part of the so-called  Obuasi Cooperative Small Scale Miners Association, and have been illegally operating on the mine's mainstream concession and terrorising innocent people, who interfere with their activities in the Obuasi municipality.

'They have been on the radar screen of the national security taskforce for some time, due to their questionable links with other illegal miners operating in the municipality, and certain gunrunners from outside Obuasi,' a source close to the national security taskforce said.

Moro Ayana, Rufus Bore, the self-styled leader of Obuasi illegal miners, Shaibu Kwadwo, and Gilbert Obortey were arrested by the taskforce.

Kwaku Danso, who is also one of the leaders of the illegal miners, was later arrested by the same taskforce in the same area with a single barrel gun and seven bullets.

A private security operative working for the mining company, Tony Yaw Michael, said 'The 5 leaders were arrested among 150 machete-wielding illegal miners, who were arrested on the Obuasi 'Ring Road', a security road inside the northern part of the Obuasi [mine] on their way to access the underground working areas through access holes created by these illegal miners though they knew very well that a national security taskforce was in full patrol in the area.'

A military reinforcement was dispatched to the place, and all the five suspects were arrested and handed over to Obuasi local police, but later transferred to Kumasi for further investigation. The police had scheduled the hearing at a Kumasi Circuit Court on Tuesday.

Suffering under the draconian rule of illegal miners in Obuasi, the people in the communities, concerned with increasing violence and insecurity associated with illegal mining in the municipality, have all the time been accusing the police of being in concert with the 10,000 strong illegal miners, operating in the town.

They want the police team to be purged. With the case in Kumasi, the people hope appropriate sentences would be given to these galamsayers, so that 'our children would reject illegal mining as a profession'.

Yeboah Baafi, an 82 year former miner, said, 'We can only have peace and security in Obuasi if these illegal miners and their gunrunning counterparts are flushed out of Obuasi, together with security personnel who are eating from the palms of the illegal miners.'