Owners of burnt excavators must sue government - Wontumi advises

Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako is urging miners whose excavators have been burnt to sue the government and claim damages.

Members of Operation Vanguard, a combined team of armed police and military personnel who were deployed to various mining sites in the country last week are reported to have set ablaze a number of mining equipment, specifically excavators.

Chairman Wontumi as affectionately called, bemoaned the practice and insists that the victims must legally pursue the central government claim damages for the actions of the security personnel.

“They should come together and sue government for burning down their equipment because they were supposed to seize them and not burn them as they did”, he said on a local radio station.

Mr Anthony Mensah, Production Manager at Extra Gold Mining Company Limited, earlier this week revealed the taskforce mandated to clamp down on illegal mining activities in the country set their mining equipment ablaze and after that fled the scene.

“The equipment were hired from a company to undertake some work for Extra Gold Mining Company Limited. At the time they arrive at where the equipment were parked, the machines were not working but the decided to set them on fire,” he narrated.

He revealed the company has a mining concession with all the requisite documentation to operate in the country but the soldiers without recourse to the laid down rules, set the equipment on fire on mere suspicion owners were using them to engage in illegal mining activities.