Wamanafo youth up in arms against illegal miners

Wamanafo, a community in the Dormaa East District of the Brong Ahafo region, is enveloped in tension as the youth have threatened to go to all lengths to halt the activities of illegal gold miners, wreaking havoc on their farms and farm lands.

They said they could no longer tolerate the reckless and destructive acts of the miners and warned them to vacate the area in their own interest or face their wrath.

Mr. Emmanual Amponsah, spokesman of the angry youth, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA), that the rate at which their farms lands were being laid to waste was alarming and if allowed unchecked, that could deprive them of their livelihood.

There was also the added danger to life from deep uncovered mine pits.

He said they had counted as many as 370 such open pits and that inaction could only make things worse.

Mr. Amponsah expressed disappointment at the seeming disinterest and lack of urgency on the part of the appropriate state institutions to deal decisively with the illegal mining menace.

He claimed that there had been no response to petitions made to the district assembly and the security agencies, something that had emboldened the miners to expand and intensify their operations, and the people were now left with no choice but to sort things out themselves.

Meanwhile, the Odikro of Ampekro, Nana Kwame Yeboah, care-taker of the land where the illegal mining is being done, has given his backing to the youth and denied leasing any portion of it to any miner.

Source: GNA