Suspected illegal miners on Thursday allegedly torched some properties belonging to the Golden Star Wassa Mine at Benso in the Western Region.
The suspected illegal miners reportedly set ablaze 12 vehicles as well as excavators, ambulances and pick-ups forcing the staff of the company to run for their lives.
The Head of Corporate Affairs Gerard Hillary Osei Boakye, who revealed this said “We usually do our patrols to protect our concession which is required of us by law to be responsible for our boundaries and also prevent incursions, to make sure that community people, hunters, and farms are safe. On one such occasion which was Thursday, March 16, we encountered some illegal miners encroaching, we engaged them as part of our modus operandi and told them to move away”.
“They were interested in that area, so they came back and when they came back, we tried to ward them off with the help of the police. They dispersed again and apparently unconfirmed report reaching us is that they may have been injured in the cause of being dispersed. That probably infuriated them, and they came back torch our vehicles and ran our security post down, destroyed our offices, basically burnt things down,” he added.
“As many as 12 vehicles including an ambulance, pickups, excavators, buildings, offices, air-conditioned, our security post”.
“The police called in for reinforcement from Tarkwa, and they have been there since Thursday night to provide security, they have started their investigations, calm has been restored, and our security men who were injured have been treated and discharged,” he noted.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
