2 arrested for illegal mining near Agenda 111 Hospital

Two persons arrested for illegal mining activities close to Agenda 111 Hospital

National Security operatives have arrested two people, including the owner of an illegal mining site, near an Agenda 111 hospital project site at Adansi Asokwa in the Ashanti Region.

The arrest comes after the Regional Security Council reclaims the site degraded by illegal miners. Site owner Yussif Ibrahim was picked up after one of his employees, arrested during an operation, identified him as his boss.

Illegal miners set up their camp less than 5 meters behind the walls of the Adansi Asokwa Agenda 111 Hospital. The Ashanti Regional Security Council moved in immediately after news of the activities of the miners surfaced in the media in the first week of July.

National Security, acting on the orders of REGSEC, has been supervising the reclamation of the mined pits, which can be compared to the size of 30 standard football fields. The galamsey activities are cited less than 5 meters from the Agenda 111 Hospital.

The reclamation process has successfully restored over 80 percent of the degraded land. But despite the presence of national security operatives, some illegal miners were still found operating.

This situation led to the arrest of one person who later led operatives to the arrest of his boss. Investigations into the operations of the gang have begun as the two are questioned.

Deputy Regional Security Coordinator Alhaji Abdellah Umar told journalists that the land is to be given a second chance. "The land we are standing on now is to be given a second chance, because some few weeks ago, it was heavily degraded by illegal miners—those who you are, who you are claiming we are treating with kid gloves or whatever," he said.

Alhaji Abdellah Umar added, "As you can attest to with me, whilst we were here, we picked some of the workers, or some of the boys who were still around trying to work on the land, to the RCC. So, that is part of the fight for getting our lands back, and I can assure you we are going to take them on, especially the illegal miners who did that wrong in this place."

Meanwhile, REGSEC is partnering with the Logeist EcoReclaim Initiative and Agricentric Ventures to fully restore the degraded land. Officials say the reclaimed land would be put to economic use in time as a public-private partnership.

"We know it is very close to the Agenda 111 [project], and when we came, we still saw [illegal mining] as the reclamation was going on; we’ve still seen some around," Alhaji Abdellah Umar said. "It means when we are not careful, in the next few days or weeks, we will realise [illegal mining] on the premises of the Agenda 111 itself."

The partnership aims to conduct what is called 'microbial ecological research', where they use bacteria or inoculants to break down chemicals in the soil. This process will help restore the land, making it productive again.

The work is expected to take some time, but officials are optimistic that the land will be fully restored. "We are doing everything that we can to make sure that we have a solution for it," said Benjamin Karikari Dwira. "But as it stands now, I can tell you, per observation, this place is a place that we must move to and sit in earnest to make sure that we do something about it."

Source: JOY