The District Chief Executive for Akyemansa Assembly in the Eastern Region, Paul Asamoah last Tuesday led a joint security taskforce to raid some illegal mining sites in his area, in his bid to rid his enclave off illegal mining.
The DCE, who is the chairman of District Security Council (DISEC) and the area Police Commander, Superintendent George Bawa, after embarking on the operations at the mining sites, arrested and burnt twenty (20) chanfang machines and other equipment used by the galamseyers on the Pra River in one community called Amantia.
The DCE, Paul Asamoah after the operation explained that his outfit had tried several means to halt the activities of illegal miners on the Pra River in the District where they share a boundary with the Ashanti Region, but the illegal miners paid deaf ears to his warning.
According to him, to save the situation and to stop the destruction of the water bodies, he led the team to size the equipment and burnt them.
He noted that his outfit gathered that the Okada riders serve as informants to these illegal miners and anytime the District Anti Galamsey Taskforce decide to embark on operations in the galamsey sites then they run to inform them, such that by the time the taskforce team got to the mining sites, all the illegal miners would have fled.
He also revealed that some landlords in the communities around the Pra River where illegal miners were operating seem not to be helping the national galamsey fight because they rent their houses to these illegal miners of which most of them are foreigners from neighboring countries.
He, therefore, warned the landlords to stop renting their homes to the illegal miners.
