The Asokwa Divisional Police Command has arrested eight suspected miners in a special operation at Pakyi Kaniago in the Amansie West District of Ashanti region.
The suspects were found operating with chanfan machines along the banks of River Nwere, River Abufunu and River Akai, when the police, acting on intelligence stormed the area.
Several other illegal miners, however, reportedly managed to escape arrest. The arrested suspects are helping further investigations pending prosecution in the courts. The operation, which lasted nearly two hours last Monday, also led to the seizure of eight motorbikes, several pumping machines, and one excavator used in the destruction of several acres of cocoa farms and pollution of rivers, which serve as sources of drinking water for the community.
Residents of Pakyi No. 1 have condemned activities of the illegal miners in the area claiming all the rivers in the locality have been contaminated by minig activities.
They called on the chief of the community, Nana Poku Owusu Ababio II to be proactive and discourage illegal miners by taking drastic action against the menace.
