A/R: Court remands 22 illegal miners arrested in forest reserve.

The Bekwai Circuit Court in Ashanti Region has remanded 22 illegal miners into Police Custody to reappear two weeks later.

The accused persons were arrested by a joint Security Taskforce numbering about a hundred comprising the Police, Immigration, Fire, Prisons, and the Forestry Commission led by the District Chief Executive for Akrofuom, Maurice Jonas Woode.

A total of 24 were arrested engaging in Sukuma Forest reserve at Pewodie near Grumesa in the Adansi Akrofuom District of the Ashanti Region but two were established to be farmers mistakenly arrested by the team.

The accused persons have been using Chanfai machine and gold detectors to mine in river Nana Pomah which take its headwaters from the forest reserve.

According to Palmer Aikens, Tepa Range Manager of the Forestry Commission, the illegal miners had erected tents which they sleep in the forest reserve under their concealed mining activities.

He said over 200 tents were identified and destroyed. Also,16 Chanfai machines were set on fire,104 water pumping machines, and 9 Gold detectors machines were also seized from the miners as exhibits.

In a related development, the District Chief Executive for Akyemansa in the Eastern Region, Paul Asamoah says more divers are needed to sustain the fight against illegal miners Operating on river bodies in the district.

He said the Akyemansa District has recorded huge influx of illegal miners from different places illegally mining in the district which the assembly is struggling to flush them out due to the unavailability of divers.