Tension at Asamama as land guards kidnap six galamseyers

Tension is rising again at Asamama in the Atiwa District of the Eastern region following the kidnap of six illegal miners by some gun wielding land guards Saturday .

According to reports, the land guards were led by one Yaw Ayebiawhe, a famous concessionaire in the area

The incident comes on the back of a similar attack in November which led to the death of two miners while several others were injured

Saturday's incident has heightened tension in the community again as the small scale illegal miners have threatened to launch a reprisal attack if the concessioner is not advised to desist from the rambo style raid in the community.

The concessionaire is reportedly angered by attempts by the galamseyers to mine within his territory.

Speaking to Starr News, Kelvin Siameh Kobina, leader of the small scale miners explained that since the deadly clashes in the community, they are in the process of withdrawing their equipment from the site.

He said illegal miners captured on the site were withdrawing their equipment when the incident occurred.

He however appealed to government to intervene for peace to prevail to avoid bloody clashes in the community.

"Currently we know H.E Nana Akufo Addo , President-elect has not been sworn in yet ,but right now His Excellency John Dramani Mahama is in charge but we want to appeal to government that we are all Ghanaians, Ayebiahwe can never intimidate us because he is telling us Akufo-Addo has won so if we joke, he is going to kill us, but we want to tell the government that it is not that the pump action gun they are using that we cannot buy it; we have money even if it is machine gun, we can buy it today.

"But we don't want to do anything to spill blood but if Ayebiahwe continues to attack us with land guards, we are going to stand on our feet to defend ourselves, we are all Ghanaians, we don’t have jobs to do this is the only job we do to survive, we are not criminals after all to be attacked with guns" he narrated .

Meanwhile, the kidnapped miners are reported to have been handed over to the Anyinam Police Command.