Rescued illegal miners in hiding for fear of arrest
The nine illegal miners who were rescued from a collapsed mining pit at Banda Nkwanta have gone into hiding for fear of arrest.
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The Bole-Bamboi Police want the nine people to explain how they had access to the Bui Game Reserve which is a restricted area.
“The game reserve is a restricted area and has its own security all the time. What we want to understand is how the illegal miners got access to the place,” the Bole-Bamboi District Police Commander, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mr Eric Awiadem, said.
He was speaking to the Daily Graphic in a telephone interview.
Invitation
ASP Awiadem said the managers of the Bui Game Reserve had been invited for questioning over the incident, which resulted in the death of one person, identified as Kojo Abesim, a native of Navrongo in the Upper East Region.
On the identities of the nine others who were rescued, he said none of them volunteered his name, while the community had also failed to help the police to establish their identities.
No comment
The Second in Command at the Bui Game Reserve, identified only as Paul, declined to comment when this paper contacted him on phone, saying, “I will get back to you; there is someone in the office with me at the moment.”
The Bui Game Reserve which stretches from the Brong Ahafo Region into the Northern Region has become part of a busy commercial pot for galamsey operators in recent years after large deposits of gold were discovered in the area.
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Mine collapse
One person died after a pit collapsed on 10 illegal miners at Banda Nkwanta in the Bole-Bamboi District at dawn on July 7, 2014.
The nine survivors were rescued by members of the Banda Nkwanta community.
The deceased, found by the police after a 24-hour search in the pit, was the last to be retrieved from the soil that had trapped him.