Operation vanguard storm Aisha Huang's galamsey site

The Operation Vanguard taskforce mission continues unabated as they stormed some illegal mining sites in Asuogya Gyaman, Nyamebekyere Gyaman in the general area of Bepotenteng in Amansie Central District of the Ashanti Region on Wednesday April 18 2018.

Intelligence report gathered, revealed that the site was linked to Aisha Huang who is standing trial over charges linked with illegal mining activities.

The team could not arrest any person on the field but managed to secure expired non-citizen Ghanaian ID cards of two Chinese nationals who managed to escape.

The cards had the same name, Lu Qiuying, with different images.

The suspects’ identity, according to the taskforce, would be given to the appropriate security body for further investigations.

Also, two excavators, five industrial generators, five changfans and other earthmoving equipment were immobilised.

Items seized include five water pumping machines, three generator sets and other mining equipment.

Concurrently, the riverine team of the joint taskforce also was on the Offin River and immobilised 24 changfans on the river along the Dominase general area in the Central Region.

Speaking to the media after the operation, Operation Vanguard Joint TaskForce (JTF) Commander, Col Amoah-Ayisi admonished Ghanaians to stop aiding the illegal miners to continue the depletion of Ghana’s forest reserves and river bodies.

He called on patriotic Ghanaians not to betray the state by acting as spies for the illegal miners for a pittance.

Col. Amoah-Ayisi bemoaned the extent to which some Ghanaians listen to lies peddled by the galamseyers and make a lot of media storm out of such.

“The propaganda does not help our cause and tends to thwart the efforts of the taskforce. Peddling untruths about operations of the taskforce and personnel will not deter us and we’ll continue to work for a better future that would ensure our environment is sanitised,” he said.

He advised that in case of any unprofessional conduct involving any personnel of operation vanguard, the public should make it a responsibility to immediately report to the relevant institutions. “Appropriate sanctions shall be applied on those individuals when allegations are found to be true,” he assured.

The Commander of the task force reiterated that some individuals are using the name of Operation Vanguard to extort monies from illegal miners. “Those individuals are being tracked and will soon be arrested for the law to deal with them”, he added.

Col. Amoah-Ayiai urged the legal small-scale miners to remain patient for government to roll out appropriate measures to sanitise the mining sector so that they can operate in a peaceful and sustainable environment.

On logistics, he said they could only manage one patrol at a time as a result of lack of vehicles.

He further called on well-meaning institutions and individuals to support the efforts of government with vehicles, drones, and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) among others, to aid the task force in their fight against galamsey.

He was confident that when given these logistics, it would lead to much success to restore Ghana’s forest reserves and river bodies to their original states.