Illegal miner grabs ‘balls’ of Operation Vanguard member

A member of the Operation Vanguard team operating in the Eastern region had his manhood grabbed and violently pulled by an illegal miner who was part of a gang mining on a river in the Akyem enclave.

The illegal Miner, Totimeh Sylvester, allegedly grabbed and pulled balls of the security officer in order to escape but was overpowered.

The accused was put before the Koforidua Circuit Court “B” on Thursday.

Constable Kojo Dei told the Court that on 23rd October, 2017, at about 10am the Operation Vanguard team embarked on an operation on a tip off to cordon a mining site at Ekuase as part of the operation to clamp down on illegal mining popularly known as Galamsey

He said the team spotted the accused and his gang on river Nwin using a Chanfai machine to mine for gold in the river.

The gang on seeing the Police took to their heels. The team gave them a hot chase but the two other suspects absconded. The accused, however, run into a cocoa farm where the owner of the farm was harvesting his cocoa pods and pretended to be part of the farm -hands by picking the pods.

Constable Dei further explained that, when he and his other colleagues got to the farm, they became suspicious of the accused who was busily picking cocoa pods and upon interrogation the owner of the Cocoa farm betrayed the accused that he is an intruder.

He said, the accused was dragged to the scene where they were operating but the accused suddenly attempted to snatch a rifle from police, bit his colleague in the tights and grabbed the scrotum and began to pull to escape but he was overpowered and was sent to Nkawkaw Divisional CID for investigation.

The defence counsel prayed the Court to grant the accused bail, a plea Prosecutor, Mrs. Emily Addo- Okyireh, Regional State Attorney objected on grounds that many illegal miners standing trial have jumped bail.

However, the Presiding Judge, Mercy Addei -Kotei granted bail of Ghc10, 000, with two sureties to reappear on November 14, 2017.