Upper West Regional Coordinating Council flushes out illegal miners

Due to the pressure the security services have put on illegal miners in some mining communities in the southern part of the country, some miners are now shifting their activities to the Upper West Region.

Although they are not many, the Upper West Regional Coordinating Council is taking steps to nip the activities of these illegal miners in the bud.

In line with this, the Regional Minister, Dr Ephraim Aveah Nsoh, has led a team of security personnel to some illegal mining sites at Bulenga and Dayankura in the Wa  East District to obtain first-hand information on the activities of these miners, who are mostly people from the region and had previously worked as illegal miners.

At Bulenga the team saw large areas with deep pits. As if the illegal miners had prior notice of the visit of the team, nobody was found at the site.

At Dayankura, the Illegal miners abandoned their equipment and ran into the bush when they had hints about the team’s visit. The team, however, seized the equipment which included stone crashers generators and fuel.

While on its way back to Wa, the team saw another group engaged in mining in a remote village in the forest. Upon enquiries, it was realised they were from Burkina Faso so they were arrested for undertaking illegal activities and their camp was destroyed.

 The eight-member group, whose ages ranged between 20 and 35 years are: Janpu Nuhu, Ayuba Janpu, Ali Abdul Rashid, Dramani Dabir, Musah Adama, Bukari Dabir and Mustapha Asafo.

Speaking to the media after the exercise, the Regional Minister, Dr  Nsoh, said the region would not countenance activities that had the potential of destroying the environment.

He also said pressure would be mounted on the illegal miners in order for them to stop their nefarious activities because the chemicals they used were dangerous to the health of people in nearby communities.

“The use of cyanide is not acceptable. The technology they are using puts the lives of people and their own lives in danger and this must not be tolerated,” he added.

On the arrest of the Burkinabes, Dr Nsoh said inasmuch as “we are maintaining our ECOWAS brotherliness, we will not allow them to behave illegally”.