A police operation to clamp down on activities of illegal miners who have pitched camp in the Offin Shelter Belt Forest Reserve at Anwiafutu near Nyinahin, in the Ashanti region, turned violent as four people sustained varied degrees of injury.
Joynews’ Assisting Editor, Ohemeng Tawiah, embedded in the team, was among those injured by a mob of illegal miners.
He was following up on an earlier story he did on the illegal mining operations of Clean Jobs Resources Limited.
He sustained head and chest injuries, twisted fingers, and multiple cuts on his body after surviving a machete attack, in what appears to be an attempt to cut off his right leg.
The mob seized the team’s camera, mobile phones, power bank, Bluetooth device, money and lenses, among other personal effects, and also damaged two minibuses used by the team.
The police team from the Ashanti Regional Police headquarters in-Kumasi, which included the media and excavator mechanics and operators, stormed the mining site of Clean Jobs Resources Limited at about 9 a.m. on Friday, December 20, 2024.
The team first dispossessed and arrested security personnel dressed in military camouflage to pave the way for what was expected to be a successful operation.
As the police team entered the mining site, the suspected illegal miners, made up of Chinese and local collaborators, had escaped, leaving their gold washers and generators on the site. They had been tipped off to escape. Several hectares of the once-virgin Offin Shelter Belt Forest Reserve have been destroyed through illegal mining operations.
Deep trenches have been freshly dug, and heaps of sand believed to contain precious minerals were being washed.
At least eight washing machines busily engaged in washing activities were spotted at the site of a company contracted to reclaim mined forest reserve.
While the police team continued with the search for illegal miners, news came in that the illegal miners, with the support of the youth of Anwiafutu, had erected a barricade at the only entrance to the site.
The agitated miners and reinforced security, headed by one Alhassan and later Commander Adu, demanded the police free arrested illegal miners and release seized pump-action guns and mobile phones as part of negotiations for the safe passage of the police team.
They also demanded the camera and footage of the Joynews team and demanded the police succumb to negotiating the safety of the team.
The agitated miners then started throwing stones at the minibuses, smashing their glass windows.
In no time, another reinforced security team dressed in military camouflage led by a man identified as W.O. arrived at the scene to support the illegal miners. The WO ordered that no vehicles were to leave the site.
A unit committee member of Anwiafutu intervened to rescue the news team to a waiting police pickup.The miners, however, chased and attacked Ohemeng Tawiah with pump-action guns, machetes, and stones whilst frisking him for money and mobile phones as he tripped and fell on the ground.
Ohemeng arrived at a health facility in Kumasi very weak, having bled profusely from head injuries he sustained.
The medical team rushed him to the theatre in his blood-soaked clothes to first stabilize and operate on him.
