Galamseyers Attack Policemen

Residents of a mining settlement at Gbane in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region, on Monday night deserted their homes to avoid a possible swoop by personnel of the Ghana Police Service.

On Monday November 13, some illegal miners went underground into the concession of the Shaanxi Mining Company to steal ore. Luck, however, eluded ten of the miners, when the local security of the company arrested them and handed them over to the police in the area.

Speaking to The Chronicle, the Public Relations Officer of Shaanxi Mining Company, Maxwell Wooma, said while the police were transporting the suspects to the Bolgatanga Police Station, a group of the illegal miners moved from the site to Yameriga area and ambushed the vehicle that was transporting the suspects to Bolgatanga.

He said, at about 9:30pm Monday when the group attacked the vehicle, there four police officers escorting it – two in the bucket with the suspects and two in the cabin. Amidst the attack, the driver managed to drive through to a safer place where he parked. It was then realised that the two police officers in the bucket were no longer in the vehicle.

According to the PRO, though the officers could not be found on the vehicle, the driver had to move on to Bolgatanga and not to return in search of the missing officers for security reasons. The illegal miners mercilessly beat up the two officers, who later managed to run away.

However, news got to the community that one of the officers had been killed. For fear of a possible swoop on their settlement, the residents fled the area on Monday night and were yet to return at the time of filing this report.

When contacted, the Upper East Regional Crime Officer, Mr. Sampson Agbeko, confirmed the attack but declined to offer further details, with the excuse that the police were still investigating the matter.

The state of the two police officers who were attacked was unknown.