body-container-line-1
10.06.2013 General News

Upper Denkyira MCE Hot Over Bribery

By Daily Guide
Peter Kofi AshiaPeter Kofi Ashia
10.06.2013 LISTEN

The Upper Denkyira East Municipal Chief Executive, Peter Kofi Ashia, was last Friday arrested in Rambo style by special forces directed from the National Security after allegations of bribery and extortion from Chinese illegal miners who have been nabbed and about to be repatriated.

According to deep throat sources, there had been an Inter-Ministerial Taskforce patrolling most of the 'galamsey' sites in the municipality and its environs for the past couple of weeks to arrest the illegal miners and hand them over to the Municipal Chief Executive, who doubles as the chairman of the Municipal Security Council (MUSEC) to be transported to Accra before repatriation. However when the taskforce arrested them, they were later released by the MCE on basis of some of them having the necessary documentation to work in the country.

This, according to the source, continued for days before the taskforce got wind that the MCE had allegedly been extorting money from the Chinese immigrants and granting their release.

'A Chinese who was aggrieved told us that the MCE has been extorting money between GH¢5000 and GH¢10000 before they are released and those who were unable to pay were sent to Accra,' the source told DAILY GUIDE.

However, Mr Ashia has denied the report saying that the story was fabricated, even though Alhaji Inussah Fuseini, minister of Lands and Natural Resources and the chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Taskforce instituted to clamp down on illegal mining activities in the country, confirmed the MCE's arrest on Joy FM.

According to the source, when the Chinese galamsey operators were nabbed, they were handed over to the MCE and kept at the Boa Amponsem Senior High School dining hall but the numbers kept decreasing anytime they went there to hand over newly arrested ones, and that alarmed them.

When the MCE was interrogated as to why he was releasing them, he told the taskforce that those released had the requisite permit to work in the country and so they decided to track him. Later, another batch of illegal immigrants was brought to the Municipal headquarters, where some were left to go.

On Friday around 10:20am, a special taskforce different from the Inter-Ministerial Taskforce stormed the offices of the Municipal Chief Executive, just some five minutes after entering his office. They surrounded his office and some entered inside and ordered him not to pick anything, not even his plea to pick his ipad was granted.

He was whisked into a waiting car and driven to Accra.

A search conducted in his office by the special forces before taking him away revealed gold samples and a cash of about GH¢17,000.

The Municipal Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Otu Larbi, told the local media that his outfit was unaware of the arrest of the MCE.

Meanwhile, about 200 Chinese illegal immigrants have so far been arrested and transported to Accra.

The ongoing operation seeks to clamp down on foreign nationals in the small-scale mining, as their activities have destroyed lands, River Offin and claimed over 200 lives in the past two years. The number of illegal miners to be flushed out is expected to double in the weeks ahead, as the operations continued unabated.

 Mr Ashia suspected the story was put out there after he refused to grant the requests of some people who had approached him to facilitate the release of their colleagues arrested by the taskforce.

'I was only picked by soldiers from my office; about eight of them, that I should come to Accra,' he said.

He claimed he 'intercepted' a poly bag stashed GH¢20,000 meant to bribe an unnamed Immigrations officer who is a member of the taskforce and gave an order that, 'this money will not leave this office'.

According to Mr. Ashia, he reported the officer involved to the operations command and thought the security should have investigated that instead.

He was calling for investigations over the bribery and extortion allegations levelled against him.

A DAILY GUIDE REPORT
 

body-container-line