‘Galamseyers’ on rampage in Obuasi
Some artisanal miners operating within the Kobor enclave, an abandoned pit belonging to AngloGold Ashanti (AGA) in the Obuasi municipality, yesterday morning went on the rampage, vandalising properties belonging to political parties in protest against their removal from the area to another place.
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Numbering about 500, the miners ran riot, destroying campaign posters and billboards, and even vandalised the offices of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) near the Len Clay Stadium and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at Tutuka.
They destroyed windows, TV decoders, billboards, plastic chairs and anything they could lay hands on.
The small-scale miners, who had been mining in the enclave for a while now, had been asked by the Minerals Commission to move to another area to pave way for the company, which is currently on a ‘care and maintenance’ shutdown, to find an investor to revive the mine.
No arrest made
The Obuasi Divisional Police Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Mr Afful Boakye-Yiadom, said the police were yet to make any arrest.
He said the police had had no idea about the demonstration and that it had been spontaneous.
Mr Boakye-Yiadom, however, indicated that the police had mounted a manhunt for the demonstrators.
Damage
He said the demonstrators damaged louvre blades in the offices of both the NDC and the NPP and destroyed party billboards and posters, “before converging on the municipal assembly where they destroyed some of the louvre blades”.
He said they also smashed the windscreens of three vehicles belonging to AGA.
The galamsey operators demonstrating in Obuasi yesterday.
Riot control
Mr Boakye-Yiadom said members of the police riot control team had been deployed to the municipality to maintain law and order.
Grievances
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the Public Relations Officer of the Association of Artisanal Miners, Mr Ben Annan, said the association had been hinted about the decision by the Minerals Commission to move the miners to another site.
According to him, the association was told that because of its presence on the concession of the AGA, the company was unable to find an investor to revive the mine.
He said following the release of 60 per cent of the concession to the government, a committee was set up to ensure that the released concession was allocated to the artisanal miners.
Mr Annan explained that per the geological map of the AGA, the new areas did not have enough ore to be mined by the artisanal miners.
He claimed that some of the small-scale miners had also invested in the mining operations and pleaded with the committee in charge of the allocation to assist the miners with excavators to help clear and dig the place for them.
He said the members had wanted to go on a demonstration last Tuesday when they heard that military men had been brought to the site to evacuate them.
However, he said, they were impressed upon to rescind that decision and a petition was instead sent to the regional minister, who was around at the time to intervene.
One of the damaged properties
Wednesday’s demo
He said yesterday’s demonstration had not been planned and that it was just a few members who were angered by the presence of the military at the site who had gone on the rampage.
While condemning his fellow miners who had rioted and damaged property belonging to the political parties, he expressed the belief that if the committee had listened to the concerns of the people, “we could have avoided this”.
He commended the security agencies for maintaining their calm and not reacting to the action of the demonstrators.
