Thirteen illegal miners have been arrested by the taskforce of the Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners (GNASSM).
The suspects, including some West African nationals, were arrested at Accra Village, Mampong, Nkatieso, Mokyere, and other places operating on the Birim River.
The GNASSM Taskforce commander, Don Chebe, said the operations took place on Thursday and Friday.
He said close to a 100 Chanfangs and water pumping machines were burnt while others were retrieved.
“We came across people who were washing in the rivers directly, so as a taskforce commander, I want to assure the public that we are not going to stop this operation. It will continue till they put an end to it.
‘’We have arrested 13 people so far, most of whom are Ghanaians, some few foreigners. Investigations are still going on to find out more about these people who have been arrested,” he said.
He added that even though it was not easy to arrest them, the taskforce had adopted strategies to clamp down on these people.
“Since we are faster than them and all my men are divers, we dived into the Birim River in order to even arrest some of them. We arrested some of them on the Birim River and others on the outskirts of the river.
“We have destroyed almost 100 chanfang machines on the Birim river, ” he said
The Vice President and Secretary of GNASSM, Sampson Kofi Wiredu and Godwin Armah respectively, said the operation was to augment efforts by the government to clamp down on illegal miners whose activities continued to create a mess in the mining industry.
“These people arrested are in custody at Koforidua Central Police Station. We expect the law to deal with them to deter others from such acts because if these people are left to go free, then it means our efforts to curb the menace will be in vain.
“In fact, Ghana National Association of Small-Scale Miners are very serious about this exercise; we do not intend to prevent people from doing mining but we would have wished we all use the legally laid-down means to do mining. This is what we expect from anyone who wants to mine.
‘’We expect nobody to mine in our rivers and destroy the water bodies. That is why we are collaborating with the ministry to embark on this exercise with the minister to curb this problem,” the two said.
The Communication Director of GNASSM, Razak Alhasan, said illegal miners continued to threaten the water quality of the Birim River in the Eastern Region,so every effort would be made by the Association to protect it.
“We have identified that the Birim River has become a hotspot for these illegal activities. These illegal miners are very stubborn. So we are using the Birim river to make sure that those who are washing in the river and on the river bank itself are apprehended to face the law”.
Razak Alhassan stated that the association, together with the security, had deployed a strategy to fish out the financiers of these illegal miners, hinting that chiefs and sub-chiefs were among them.
In a related development, 27 pieces of illegal mining equipment, made up of 19 chanfangs and eight water pumping machines have been burnt in a special military and police joint operation in the Eastern and Ashanti regions led by the Deputy Minister forLands and Natural Resources George Mireku Duker.
The team also burnt a number of tents being used by the illegal miners as shelters. -starrfm.com