OilCity Radio understands that 33 people were detained last week for vandalising assets belonging to the Golden Star Wassa Mine in Benso, Western Region.
The illegal miners are said to have set ablaze 12 vehicles, including excavators, ambulances, and pick-up trucks, causing the company’s employees to flee for their safety.
Gerard Hillary Osei Boakye, the Head of Group Corporate Affairs, previously told OilCity Radio how they were targeted.
“We normally perform our patrols to safeguard our concession which is expected of us by law to be accountable for our boundaries and to prevent incursions, to make sure that community people, hunters, and crops are safe. On one such occasion which was Thursday, March 16, we spotted several illegal miners advancing, we engaged them as part of our modus operandi and instructed them to move away.”
“They were interested in that location, so they came back and when they came back, we tried to ward them off with the aid of the police. They scattered again, and according to unsubstantiated reports, they may have been hurt as a result of the dispersal. It obviously enraged them, and they returned to torch our cars, ran down our security post, damaged our offices, and essentially burned everything down,” he stated.
