The District Chief Executive of Ellembelle District in the Western Region, Hon Kwasi Bonzoh is seaming with rage at the lackadaisical attitude of the police in the fight against illegal mining activities in the district popularly called galamsey.

Speaking to this reporter in a phone interview on the negligence of two police officers with the Ellembelle Police Command in the Western Region on Wednesday, August 31, 2022, he said two abandoned brand-new excavators left in the care of two police officers are nowhere to be found.

A visibly upset DCE noted that despite reporting the incident personally to the Divisional police commander, ACP Dodzie Hlordzie to detail personnel to guard the two impounded excavators, the Divisional commander treated the issue with less interest.

” ..after persistent calls by some well know indigenes to report galamsey activities at Nkroful Agric SHS including the headmaster, I quickly dashed back to the District from a workshop in Accra to find to my utter dismay the total destruction of a portion of the NASS Agric SHS…a member of the Ellembelle District Mining Committee, Francis Apeni together with an official of the National Investigation Bureau (NIB) therefore reported to the Divisional Commander who then was with the District Police Commander, Superintendent Stephen Appiah.

He ( the Divisional Commander ) however gave a flimsy excuse that they are understaffed and since the excavators have not been moved since Tuesday, August 30,2022 , it means nobody was going to move them and it had to take the prompting of Supt. Stephen Appiah before he reluctantly detailed two armed police to go and guard the excavators but instructed them to withdraw at 6pm. I therefore averted his mind that the patrol team was just sighted on snap checks just 3 kilometres aways and such an excuse was not tenable,” the DCE lamented.

He was upset how the two Policemen decided to leave the impounded excavators for them to be taken over by the unknown galamseyers.

“..these are brand new excavators my brother, it seems and for the Police to leave it unguarded for it to be retrieved by the galamseyers undermines the fight against galamsey by the President. I am always fingered because I am a political appointee as the one who is the man to be responsible to fight this menace and the police who are to help in making arrest and investigate are somehow acting as if they are in cahoots with these galamseyers because even with this ACP Hlordzi kept insisting no one has made an official report and will always give flimsy excuses of being understaffed. I will not relent. I will fight them to whatever extent it will take…as I talk the Divisional Police Commander is now denying I reported the issue but here, I have 3 call logs on my phone that are calls I made to him,” the animated DCE bellowed.

He said in a bid to avoid the return of the other galamsey accoutrements he had to burn them.

“I went to buy petrol to burn their equipments so they do not come for it like they came for the heavy duty equipment, I will buy fuel and burn the galamsey equipments anytime they are seized as the Police seem not to be a reliable partner to count on but I will push this issue till the IGP gets wind of it so he acts on it ,” Hon Bonzoh emphasised.

Meanwhile in a telephone interview later on Empire Community News , monitored by Modern Ghana News , the Divisional Police Commander denies there were excavators left in the care of the Police.

He said rather the request was by a special assistant of the DCE for a Police deployment to seize the excavators to Takoradi and not the DCE. He said upon visiting the supposed galamsey site, no excavators were found.