20 Illegal miners perish in caved mine at Akyem Wenchi

Tragedy hit Akyem Wenchi in the Denkyembour District in the Eastern Region last Wednesday, when over 20 illegal miners were trapped to death in a pit in which they were digging for gold.

Only four bodies of the deceased had been retrieved by the time of filing this report yesterday.

An eye witness who wants to remain anonymous, told the Daily Graphic that the illegal miners blocked the Birim River to prevent it from flowing into the pit in which they were carrying out their illegal activity.

He said in the course of their operation, the wall collapsed , leading to  the pit  being covered with water and mud.  

Incident

News of the sad incident attracted many people in the district to the scene, including the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Denkyembour, Umar Ahmed, who arrived in the company of some police personnel.

But for the timely intervention of the armed police personnel who accompanied the DCE, a mob from Wenchi would have lynched him after he had incurred their displeasure.

After the policemen, on the orders of the DCE, had tried fruitlessly to retrieve the remaining bodies from the pit, they in the company of Mr Umar came to Wenchi town and saw two parked excavators, and the DCE looked for their drivers to move them to the site to assist in retrieving the bodies from the mud.

The owners were, however, no where to be found, compelling the DCE to order the people accompanying him to break their side glasses to enable them to drive them to the accident scene to retrieve the dead.

Some youth who were around  thought that the DCE was sending the excavators to Akwatia to be confiscated by the police.

They thus made calls to their colleagues to intervene, and within a twinkle of an eye, a large number of the irate youth emerged to manhandle Mr Umar, hooting at him and attempted to lynch him, but the policemen fired warning shots to scare the troublemakers and eventually whisked him away in his official vehicle.