Ghosts of galamsey operators haunt residents

The people of Mbease Nsuta in the Prestea Huni Valley Municipality of the Western Region are reportedly being haunted by ghosts of illegal miners who got trapped in a pit sometime in July 2017.

The Chief of Mbease-Nsuta, Nana Adu Panyin II, told Energy FM, a Prestea-based radio station, on Tuesday that the situation was adversely affecting the day-to-day activities of people in the community.

“We have been seeing strange images even in the afternoon. Our children can’t go to school; parents can’t go to the farm. It’s been a difficult situation” Nana Adu Panyin said.

He said he and his elders have consulted the fetish priest of the town on the matter and were told that the spirits of the illegal miners wanted a befitting burial.

He said according to the fetish priest, the spirits have resolved to continue to haunt the town unless a befitting burial ceremony was organized for them, stating that a befitting burial ceremony was the only remedy.

“This means their bodies need to be exhumed from where they were buried when the pit caved-in and a proper burial ceremony organized for them”, he said.

He said he was trying to get the Prestea Huni Valley Municipal Assembly to assist the community to organize a befitting burial for the deceased.

It would be recalled that in July 2017, some 23 illegal miners got trapped in a pit at Mbease-Nsuta when the pit in which they were working caved-in.

A Rescue and Search Team dispatched to the place by the Western Regional Minister however retrieved only one of the bodies, leaving 22.

They bodies were subsequently buried in a mass grave.

By Marlvin-James Dadzie