Suspected illegal miners commonly called, “Galamsey”, last Thursday, torched and burnt down some properties belonging to the Golden Star Wassa Mine at Benso in the Western Region.
In all 12 vehicles, as well as excavators, ambulances and pick-ups were burnt, forcing the staff of the company to run for their lives.
Police, have reported the death of one person, injury to some four others, as well as the destruction of some properties belonging to the company.
Police have since beefed up security in Wassa Benso and its environs to curb further disturbances between members of the community and the mining company.
. . It happened at our Benso operations . . . they have burnt twelve (12) of our vehicles, including excavators and an ambulance used in serving the community . . . they’ve destroyed some of our offices and belongings of our Contractors . . .” the Head of Corporate Affairs Gerard Hillary Osei Boakye said.
The Head of Corporate Affairs, had explained “we usually do our patrols to protect our concession which is required of us by law to be responsible for our boundaries and also prevent incursions, to make sure that community people, hunters, and farms are safe. On one such occasion which was Thursday, March 16, we encountered some illegal miners encroaching, we engaged them as part of our modus operandi and told them to move away”.
“They were interested in that area, so they came back and when they came back, we tried to ward them off with the help of the police. They dispersed again and apparently unconfirmed reports reaching us is that they may have been injured in the cause of being dispersed. That probably infuriated them, and they came back, torched our vehicles and ran our security post down, destroyed our offices, basically burnt things down,” he added.
“As many as 12 vehicles including an ambulance, pickups, excavators, buildings, offices, air-conditioned, our security post”.
“The police called in for reinforcement from Tarkwa, and they have been there since Thursday night to provide security, they have started their investigations, calm has been restored, and our security men who were injured have been treated and discharged,” he noted.
