Two police officers with the Ellembelle Police Command in the Western Region on Wednesday, August 31, 2022 abandoned two brand new excavators left in their care.
Unfortunately, the two brand new excavators are nowhere to be found, a day after they were abandoned by the two police officers despite a frantic search for them at Ellembelle.
Narrating events leading to the bizarre spectacle, a livid District Chief Executive for Ellembelle who doubles as the Chairman of the District Security Council Kwasi Bonzo said he reported to the Divisional Police Commander ACP Dodzi Hlordzi of an ongoing illegal mining operation on the land of the Nkroful Agriculture Senior High School and needed officers to go and clamp down on them.
Unfortunately, the Divisional Police Commander told him there are no men for that operation.
“I received a distress call from the Headmaster of NASS about an illegal mining operation vigorously ongoing on a section of their property. Immediately after another call came from a member of the District Small Scale Mining Committee with the same complaint. So, I called the Divisional Police Commander about it and told him the team have been able to track the machine to Teleku Bokazu and needed men to protect them while we look for a vehicle to convey them to a safer location.”
He continued, “to my dismay, the Divisional Police Commander told me there are no men to undertake my request. I was sc andalised. Because what I was expecting that, he will make it a priority and treat it with dispatch considering the priority the President and his government have given to illegal mining. Well, after several minutes of back and forth, the Divisional Commander agreed to release two men but said that the men can only protect the machines to 6pm. You should have seen my reaction on the phone. For more than 18 minutes, I tried to convince the Divisional Commander on the need to give maximum protection. But his answer was the same… What can I do, because as a DCE all I can do is to alert and if it becomes difficult, arrest but the final action should be taken by the Police. So, the two men came”.
Kwasi Bonzo narrated further that at about 5:30pm he received a call from the assigned member of the District Small Scale Mining Committee that the two police officers say they are leaving.
“And true to their words they left the machines. At that time, we had still not been able to secure a vehicle to convey the machines. Earlier, I had even informed the regional minister about our challenge and he was also looking for a vehicle to help because we couldn’t get any in the whole of Ellembelle and Jomoro. It was late in the night and we couldn’t get any watchdog to help. I called the Divisional Police Commander again it was the same response I was getting”.
“Strangely, that same night and the night before we saw police officers with vehicles stationed on that same stretch of road that we needed protection for the machines. Maybe on checkpoint duties. So, if it was the priority of the police to help government win this fight against illegal mining, couldn’t they have gone there and change the police men. Is this not ironic. Where is the commitment of the police. That, at the height of the fight against illegal small scale mining, the police do not see the need to show that commitment, then it is a big worry”.
When asked why the District Mining Committee and National Intelligence Bureau team could not immobilise the two machines, he explained that no mechanic was willing to help.
“Previously, when we arrest an excavator, we call these mechanics to come and take the control board. You need a special mechanic to do that. So, we have been working with them. Strangely, this time the team called four separate mechanics and none was willing to help. They were simply not interested. So, you see that this thing is an organised crime”.
Left with no option, the District Chief Executive for Ellembelle Kwasi Bonzo led members of the District Security Committee DISEC to the illegal mining site on Thursday September 1, 2022, to destroy two other brand new machines abandoned there.
“Look at the level of destruction in just two days, only two days. We cannot continue to do this to ourselves. We cannot use false pretence. It will not help anyone. Since no one will help, we will set fire on any machine found at any illegal mining site. In fact, I will personally be buying petrol and setting the machines on fire. We have to win this fight against illegal mining”.
When the Divisional Police Commander was visited in his office, he failed to comment indicating that he can only do that with express permission from the National Police Headquarters.
By Eric Yaw Adjei|ConnectFM|Onuaonline.com
