One of the two earthmoving machines, which were reported missing in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region, has been recovered by the Ghana Police Service.
The police, in a social media post yesterday at about 9:40 local time, disclosed that the missing excavator was retrieved several kilometres inside a forest within the Ellembelle District on September 6, 2022. This feat was achieved through days of intelligence gathering and dint of hardwork by the police, the post said.
“A team of operations and intelligence officers, working day and night, discovered the missing excavator several kilometres into a forest within the Ellembelle District,” it added.
The post further revealed that the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Ellembelle, Kwasi Bonzo, and three others had been arrested in connection with the missing excavator.
According to the post, the DCE organised and led thugs to attack the police while escorting the retrieved excavator to Takoradi, capital of the Western Region.
It alleged that Mr. Bonzo and his thugs launched an attack on the law enforcement officers at the Axim Junction in Takoradi in order to obstruct the operation.
The post also indicated that an investigation was under way to recover the other excavator, which was being used for illegal mining operations, and to arrest all those behind it to face the full rigorous of the law.
How it started
The information about the missing excavators spread like wildfire, since this was not the first time an incident of this nature had happened in the country.
However, in this instance, the police and the DCE are playing the blame game. Mr. Bonzo, in a telephone interview with this reporter, alleged that he personally handed over to the police two heavy duty machines seized at a galamsey site.
Francis Apeni, a member of the Ellembelle Small Scale Mining Committee, a suspect in the case, in a presser at Ellembelle, claimed he personally led two police officers to the site where the seized galamsey excavators were parked.
The police, in response, state categorically that it did not receive any excavators, either from the DCE or any person from the District Assembly, and, therefore, urged the public to disregard the publication and treat it with the contempt it deserved.
