Eight people suspected to be illegal miners have been arrested for causing devastation to a land designated for a school park at Konkoma in the Bosomtwe District of the Ashanti Region.
The activities of the illegal miners have led to the serious degradation of the place, thus posing a serious threat to the only public school and health centre in the community.
A team from the Ashanti Regional Security Council, in an exercise, arrested the men and has indicated that they are making extra efforts to identify other individuals who spearheaded such activity.
The Ashanti Regional Security Coordinator, Captain (retd) John Kwame Jabari, who led the operation, said officials were making progress with the interrogation.
Damage
The miners, in their search for gold, have dug dangerously close to the Konkoma D/A Basic School and the community health centre, leaving deep pits and loose earth behind.
School authorities who raised the alarm were concerned and said the situation poses a major safety risk to pupils, while the abandoned pits have become mosquito breeding sites, worsening health conditions for patients at the nearby facility.
As an emergency solution, the Bosomtwe District Assembly has intervened and initiated a reclamation exercise to restore the degraded land.
