A Joint Security Taskforce headed by the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Adansi Akrofuom, Mr Maurice Jonas Woode, has arrested 24 illegal miners operating in the Sukuma Forest reserve at Pewodie near Grumesa in the Adansi Akrofuom District.

The Miners aged between 14 to 45 were said to have been operating in the middle of the forest for some time now despite the ban on illegal mining and mining in forest areas.

The task force also destroyed 16 Chanfan machines, over 200 tents and also seized 104 pumping machines and 11 Gold detector machines from the miners.

It was the second time in two weeks that the Akrofuom DCE had led a raid on illegal miners in the area after a similar exercise at Betenase.

The DCE told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview that “we had a tip-off that there has been fracas among illegal miners operating at Pawodie and Betenase. This prompted the District Security Council to map out strategies to arrest them and halt their operations”.

He announced his resolve to go after illegal miners destroying water bodies and forest areas in the District.

“We are leaving no stone unturned in clamping down on the activities of these illegal miners. We want these arrests and subsequent burning of mining equipment to serve as a deterrent to others,” the visibly furious DCE stated.

Chief Superintendent Joseph Nyaaba, Obuasi Divisional Police Commander, said the Security Taskforce was committed to nipping the activities of illegal miners in the bud.

He promised that such operations will not be a flash in the pan, disclosing that,” 83 Security personnel were involved in this operation. This is an indication of our preparedness to stop the activities of illegal miners “.

He cautioned illegal miners who had defied the Presidential orders of banning all illegal mining activities, to halt their operations since the Police would not relent in their efforts to go after them.