Seven Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) from the Rapid Response Unit (RRU) of the Forestry Commission on Wednesday dawn, November 29, 2023, carried out a swoop on illegal miners at the Manse portion of the Anhwiaso East Forest Reserve, near Diaso in the Bibiani Forest District of the Western North region.
The swoop led to the arrest of ten (10) persons including the chief of Manse, Nana Kwame Sobre II, who were engaging in illegal mining otherwise known as ‘galamsey’.
The operation was coordinated by the Forest Services Division Headquarters and the Rapid Response Unit.
A statement issued by the Commission same day indicated that the operation was carried out to flush out illegal miners who have entered the Reserve with heavy machinery, and had destroyed the forest cover and polluted water bodies through their illegal mining operations.
“These illegal acts are alleged to be backed by some top political actors and traditional authorities in the region,” the statement contained.
The RRTs arrested 10 persons who gave their names as Nana Kwame Sobre II (Chief of Manse); Osman Shaibu; Nana Kwasi; Desmond Nkrumah; Abraham Donkor; Frank Mensah; Richard Kurofie; Patrick Ayambila; Abdul Salam and Rasad Nuoeeikaa.
The details that the chief of Manse, Nana Kwame Sobre II recruited them to engage in the act.
Meanwhile, two excavators were immobilised by the team with two heavy duty generator plants also found at the illegal mining site.
The arrested persons have been sent to the Dunkwa Police Station from where they will be transferred to the appropriate Police jurisdiction in the Western North region to be processed for court.
Speaking to the press, the Coordinator of the Rapid Response Unit, Samuel Darko Akonnor, issued a strong warning to all such perpetrators to desist from such acts since “the Forestry Commission is ever prepared to fight them to save the nation’s forest and wildlife resources as well as water bodies for now and posterity.”
