Operation Vanguard hits Central Region with arrests

The newly formed Forward Operating Base (FOB) of Operation Vanguard Joint Task Force (JTF) for the Central Region, comprising of the Ghana Armed Forces and the Ghana Police, has arrested 1 Chinese and 3 Ghanaians at Nkutumso, in the Upper Denkyira East District of the Central Region.

The suspects include a Chinese National who gave his name as Luo a and his Ghanaian collaborators; Peter Boadi, Sammy Tambia and Diana Ndego.

The arrests were made on Wednesday, the 9th May, 2018, dawn when the team immobilised and seized 3 Sany brand excavators, 2 water pumping machines and 1 Toyota Hilux pickup with registration number, GT 9313-12, which is suspected to be used by the arrested persons to aid their nefarious activities.

The arrested suspects and the seized items have been handed over to the Ayanfuri Police Station for further investigations and possible prosecution.

Commenting on the recent successes of the Central Regional FOB, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Task force said by that arrest, the task force sends a stern warning to all illegal miners to put a stop to their activities and that they should be assured of arrests, wherever they may be.

He urged the public to support the taskforce in providing information on the illegal miners and their activities, but condemned the few who are still engaged in acts to support the illegal miners, advicing them to curtail such acts.

Operation Vanguard Task Force was planned formed, trained and released in 2017, to forcefully combat the fast environmental degrading activities of illegal mining, known popularly as galamsey.

Three FOBs were initially released to the Eastern, Asante and Eastern Regions, however, since the taskforce went into action in their designated regions, the nefarious activities have extended rather aggressively in the Central Region and to a large extent, the northern regions, hence the outpour of requests by traditional rulers for the JTF to be replicated in those regions.