Some youth of Kenyasi, Ntotroso and Acherensua in the Ahafo region have vowed to close-down Newmont Ahafo South Mine following the killing of three of their compatriots by the Police last Wednesday night at the company’s site.
About four others sustained various degrees of injury.
The three persons were shot dead by the Police last Wednesday night at Newmont Ahafo South Mine site in Kenyasi following a confrontation between some youth of the area and the Police.
The said altercation arose when some youth reportedly went to the tailing dam section of the mine, ostensibly to extract some left-over gold from the company’s tailings (or waste) dam.
This generated a heated argument between the youth and the Police who had been contracted by Newmont to provide security at the place.
In process, the Police opened fire at the irate youth – killing three instantly and injuring four.
An eyewitness, who narrated the incident to our correspondent on condition of anonymity, said they went to the mine site to pick up some of the waste but to their surprise the security personnel pulled guns on them.
“All the three boys who were killed by the police officers guarding Newmont Ahafo South mine are natives of the area”, he said.
As a result, tension has been mounting between the people of Kenyasi, Ntotroso and Acherensua, on one side and the police and Newmont on the other side.
The youth of these communities are demanding a “convincing explanation” from the Police and management of Newmont Ahafo mine as a matter of urgency else they would advise themselves.
Calm restored
A statement by the police signed by ACP Grace Ansah-Akrofi, the Director of Public Affairs dated 9th January 2025 confirm the incident but insisted that calm has been restored in the area as Police have been engaging community leaders and the youth in a bid to stabilize the situation.
According to Police, the incident happened because of “an attempted breach of security at the Newmont mining site by some persons to allegedly steal gold…”
“A special investigation team from Accra has been sent to the area to investigate the incident whilst a reinforcement team has also sent to the community to help ensure that there is peace security, law and order.”, the Police said.
Barbaric and inhumane
Meanwhile, Mr. Richard Adjei-Poku, environmental and human rights activist and the Executive Director of Livelihood for Environment Ghana (LEG), has described the incident as “barbaric and inhumane.”
In an interview in Sunyani, Mr. Richard Adjei-Poku condemned the act and asked Newmont to s cease forth further incidents.
Expensive lies
Meanwhile, the United Acherensua Youth, a pressure group at Acherensua, says thy are unhappy about what they consider the “expensive lies” and misinformation being peddled around by the Police about the matter.
The group is therefore asking the Police infuse more professionalism into their work as their statement on the matter contains a lot of factual inaccuracies.
Please find below the full statement issued by the United Acherensua Youth.
PRESS STATEMENT
UNITED ACHERENSUA YOUTH ADDRESSES MISINFORMATION &
MISGIVINGS FOLLOWING THE GRUESOME MURDER OF THREE, AND
INJURY OF OTHERS BY THE GHANA POLICE SERVICE
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the press. Thank you for coming to this important press conference at a short notice and thank you for your service to Ahafo and our developmental challenges.
We have called you today as United Acherensua Youth, and it is for the good of our community. Acherensua is a town with peace loving people, and we will never do anything to soil the peace and goodwill that we are known for.
To dive into the relevant matter, kindly hear us.
Two days ago, on the evening of Wednesday 8th January 2025, Acherensua was thrown into a state of mourning, coming from the gruesome murder of three (3) young men who had gone to fend for themselves. Our town has been taken hostage by confusion and the fear of many more of our sons falling victim to intentional murder clothed as deterrence or standard procedure.
Unfortunately, the authorities entrusted with finding the truth, telling the truth, keeping the peace and assuring us of thorough investigations into the murder of our brothers have decided to take sides with an occupier and trade their so-called integrity for pittance!
Ladies and gentlemen, we have taken note of publications making rounds in the media, both traditional (radio & TV) and social media. These narrations are all stemmed from the official police communication released under the hand of ACP Grace Akrofi (Director of Police Public Affairs) on Thursday 9th January 2025.
In the said publication, with reference number PAD/PRESS/VOL.4/1/134, the Ghana Police Service erroneously insinuated that “some persons” allegedly went to “steal gold” from the Newmont mining site. The statement went further to quash the truth and say that “the Police confronted the suspects, leading to the death of three persons and injuries to four others.”
First, our brothers did not go there to steal gold. It is interesting for the Ghana Police Service to make the impression that Newmont Gold Corps leaves gold in the bush for people to see and attempt to go and cart them away. Newmont Ghana has its own security setups. They have footage of activity around their gold storage facilities. Has Newmont given those footages to the Police? Has the Police taken note of the area where the murders were carried out? Does that bushy area look like a gold storage facility?
The Ghana Police Service claims that they confronted the suspects. Wow! They should not forget that some of our brothers escaped the murder scene and have given chilling accounts of the agenda to murder by the security personnel stationed on the fringes of the mine site. Have they taken time to study the bullet riddled bodies of our brothers? Some shot in the back? Were they fleeing or they confronted the armed personnel? The Police has a lot of questions to answer.
Ladies and gentlemen, in all this, despite the so-called investigation the Police has conducted, they have failed to know that the murder victims and the injured are from Acherensua. They continue to say that the affected people and their families are from Ntotroso. So much for investigations!
Late in the night after the bloody incident, at the St. Elizabeth Hospital where the bodies were taken after being recovered from the bush, there were people from Acherensua who helped the Police to deposit the bodies at the mortuary. The police officers there took the names, ages and backgrounds of our murdered brothers. However, out of the abundance of their professionalism, they claim that all the deceased are Muslims. How come? Only one out of the three victims is a Muslim.
It is worth noting that, the claim by the Police that they engaged community and youth leaders is FALSE! That night, there was nothing of the sort! No one contacted any community or youth leader in Acherensua. If the Ghana Police Service wants to be taken seriously, and have a fruitful relationship with the Acherensua community, then, they should do as their motto says – ‘Service with Integrity’. Too many lies have already been told, and the image of the Service has been dented in the eyes of the community.
These expensive lies by the Police have fed into the politicization of the matter. Our brothers go about their hand to mouth activities as individuals. They are trying to feed their families. It is hunger that make them leave their homes to face danger so that they can bring something home for the family. It is not NDC or any other political party that send them to mine. The news making the rounds that some NDC guys have been killed for attempting to steal gold at Newmont is a COMPLETE lie! Mining has no political colours. They were not sent by any political party.
To conclude, we understand that mining is one of the highest contributors to the economy of the country. We also understand that the whole of the Ahafo Region is a mining area. We also understand that our youths in the Ahafo Region are zealous to contribute to the mining sector, despite the unavailability of mining jobs for the youth. It is therefore our contention that government should work out a plan with the mining companies to cede their unused pits to the youths of the communities to engage in responsible community mining. It is the biggest move that will ensure that the gold mining companies have the best relations with the immediate communities. Also, the Ghana Police Service should infuse more professionalism into their work. The attempt to please foreign companies and twist the narrative to favour them to the disadvantage of the suffering masses of the communities here is very bad. We demand apologies for the serial lies told about our murdered brothers, and the ridicule this has brought to our community. We demand more community engagements to douse the matter at hand, and to set the records right.
Thank you for attending our press conference.
For any interviews, contact the following.
1. Haruna Yakubu – 0243192700
2. Bawah Yussif – 0533677193
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