The General Officer Commanding (GOC) for Central Command of the Ghana Army, Brigadier General Joseph Aduko Aphour has urged the public to discredit media reports suggesting that his Command is offering protection for some Chinese citizens involved in illegal mining.

Gen Aphour in an interview with the media this week, said the Amansie South District, which was the centre attraction of the purported documentary, is well endowed with mineral resources and as result, attracts lot of mining activities by both registered and illegal mining companies as well as illegal miners.

According to him, the said documentary is a misrepresentation of facts, hence must not be taken serious.

His explanation to the happening in the area was that because of the mineral resource, other nationals from Niger, Guinea and Burkina Faso are attracted to the district, making it more vulnerable to crime.

In respect of this, in June 2019, the Amansie District Assembly requested for the deployment of joint security (military & police teams) to check the activities of a militia group formed by locals and foreigners.

He said the Command was, therefore, tasked to jointly conduct Op CALM LIFE with the police, an operation that is ongoing at Tontokrom and its environs.

The GOC added that information was received over the past weeks of some persons in military uniforms and believed to be soldiers, were going round extorting monies from some mining companies.

This, he said a directive was given to effect arrest of the said soldiers, if they appeared in the district to conduct their nefarious activities.

“On Saturday, January 16, 2021 information received by the Command indicated that the purported soldiers, had moved to Odahu, a village located in Apapam Forest Reserve, which the OP CALM LIFE detachment at Tontokrom, was tasked to arrest the said soldiers,” he stated.

He emphasised that a three-man under cover patrol team was dispatched to track the said syndicate to aid in their arrest.

At about 10: 45 hours on the afore-mentioned date, the under-cover team sighted ten men dressed in Ghana Army uniforms and desert camouflage uniforms, five men in civil clothes in a section of the forest reserve.

The OP CALM LIFE Detachment at Tontokrom was alerted and moved swiftly in with a military/police detachment to effect the group’s arrest.

However, the soldiers bolted upon seeing the dust trails of the approaching vehicles of the detachment and the Military Police (MP).

General Aphour therefore stated that the soldiers who were spotted in the video news, were on authorized duty to effect the arrest of the rogue soldiers. 

He reiterated that the Detachment has been conducting OP CALM LIFE duties in the Amansie District and has brought relative calm in the area since June 2019.

By Akutu Dede Adimer