Some police officers, have been captured in a viral video from a “galamsey” site said to be near Axim in the Western Region, who have been subjected to humiliation by civilians involved in illegal mining.
In the video, one of the angry men wearing military camouflage was heard narrating how the police officers had taken money from them to allow them carry out their illegal activities, yet turned around and arrested them.
They said they had to block the road and prevent the police patrol vehicle from leaving the bush.
The heavily-armed police officers came across as greedy, wanting to confiscate the gold aside from extorting money from them.
The illegal miners, who shot the video themselves, had one of them narrating why they were manhandling the police officers who were seen begging for their lives in an embarrassing manner. Some of the officers had their uniforms torn.
The tough-talking illegal miners who appear to know the four police officers very well, were furious at their conduct, questioning why they were arresting them after they had earlier extorted money from them.
For the miners, the police could not extort money from them and wanted to take their gold also, and having failed, try to arrest them; a feeling of injustice which the officers were seen begging for forgiveness, while they were being manhandled and videoed.
“Why are you arresting me? You asked me to show you something, I showed you where it was, but you said you were taking me away, where are you sending me to? You came to the site to ask for money which we gave you. All that you asked for, we gave you, but you insisted you were taking me away. Where are you sending me to? One of the angry civilians who is yet to be identified asked.
The incident which nearly degenerated into fisticuff, saw one of the officers, who was armed with a rifle appearing helpless and in an attempt to calm the agitated illegal miners was overheard, saying “You are my guy, so why are you doing this?
He attempted to plead for mercy on behalf of his colleagues for their conduct, but the angry “galamseyers” would not listen.
They seized the uniform belonging to one of the officers and proceeded to take possession of everything, including handcuffs in the police vehicle which had Axim District Police Patrols embossed on it.
The officers had to beg for their lives, while kneeling down in their uniforms, as the angry men tried disarming them of their rifles.
One of them was heard, saying “don’t let me shoot you with your own gun”.
