Two illegal small-scale miners, Sonta Thanga, 23, Victor Olitey, 19, have found themselves in hot water after they were caught by soldiers digging for gold right inside the Oda Forest Reserve at Bonosu near Jacobu, in the Amansie Central District.
The two were part of a group of illegal scale miners, who would not heed the warning to stay off the forest reserve.
They had invaded and disturbed the reserve as they busily dug for the rock containing the ore.
Thanga and Olitey were seized by soldiers, who had accompanied officials of the Forestry Commission to the reserve before they could flee.
Their other colleagues, however, managed to escape. The soldiers retrieved from the illegal miners, digging implements and gold metal detectors.
Thango and Olitey have been criminally charged to stand trial for conspiring to undertake small-scale mining without authority from the Forestry Commission. When they appeared before the Asante-Bekwai Circuit Court to answer the criminal charge, they were ordered to be held in police custody.
They will be making their next appearance on Tuesday, June 7, 2022. The plea by their lawyer to the court to grant them bail was rejected. Police Detective Chief Inspector Eric Twum told the court that the arrest of the two small-scale illegal miners followed a tip-off to officials of the Forestry Commission.
The officials of the Commission had received information that a group of illegal miners had entered the Oda Forest Reserve at Bonosu near Jacobu and they moved in with soldiers to smoke them out.
Thanga and Olitey were caught by the officers before they could escape but the others managed to slip through.
The two were subsequently handed over to the Jacobu police for investigation and prosecution.
According to Police Detective Inspector Twum, the pair told police investigators that they had been engaged by one Kwaku and Mohammed.
Content created and supplied by: KyeretwienanaOseiBonsu (via Opera
News )