Court remands 57 suspected illegal miners
Fifty seven persons of Agye Pepo, near Aboso in the Prestea Huni/Valley district and Pasay-Top, a popular mining site in the Tarkwa Nsueam municipality, have been remanded by the Tarkwa circuit court for engaging in illegal mining.
The pleas of the suspects who were arrested in a separate operation conducted by the joint military and police task force established by government to clamp down illegal mining activities were not taken.
The Prosecutor, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Juliana Essel-Dadzie told the court presided by Mr. Emmanuel Bart-Plange Brew that they cannot take the pleas of the suspects as the police has not taken their statements.
She, therefore, asked the court to remand them so as to help the police complete the process for trial.
Lawyer Bright Baiden, council for the suspects, who was not happy with the prosecutors submission told the police to attach much importance to this illegal mining issue as its of national importance.
The presiding judge however intervened and calmed both parties and explained that the Chief Justice had selected specific courts throughout the country to deal with the illegal mining issues and that Tarkwa circuit court was not one of them.
Mr. Brew said since Sekondi High court had been mandated to handle such matters; he would refer it to that court for prosecution to begin on August 14.
The judge ordered that the gold bearing sand that were retrieved during the exercise should be sent to the Goldfields laboratory with a representative each from the police service, task force and illegal miners for the gold to be recovered.
He emphasized that all the other items should be kept by the police until the court was ready for hearing.
Information gathered by Ghana News Agency indicated that on August 4,the “operation vanguard” officers were on routine patrols at Agya Pepo when they chanced on twenty persons at an illegal mining site prospecting for gold.
They arrested the suspects together with three motor bikes, one Changan machine, 18 mobile phones, one 20KW electronic motor, two compressor machines, a bicycle and one sack of sand suspected to contain gold and an amount of 14,055 Ghana cedis.
On August 5, at 1630 hours, the team which had been in Tarkwa for a while proceeded to the Pasay -Top mining site and apprehended thirty seven illegal miners.
The team also impounded on Hyundai Kia Truck with registration number GS 429-12 fully loaded with unspecified number of fertilizer sacks, four vehicles and one SAX compressor.
Source: GNA