Eight illegal miners have been arrested for unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition in Gbane, a mining site in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region.
The suspects were rounded up by a combined team of police and military following intelligence that they had been brought into the community by a small-scale miner, Zongdan Boyak Kolog, popularly known as Polo, to provide illegal security for a mining concession he claims to own though the concession falls within the mining area of a Chinese large scale mining company.
The arrested individuals have been identified as Masawudu Adam, 33; Yussif Zakari, 26; Abass Nashiru, 18; Abunkrugu James, 19; Abdulai Mbelba, 18; Abdulai Aziz, 32; Yussif Mbelba, 46; and Nicholas Yin, 45.
Security sources say the joint police and military team conducted a thorough search of the house and discovered the arms and ammunition concealed in one of the rooms as residents are calling for the arrest of the miner.
Items retrieved included one AK-47 rifle, a pump-action gun, various categories of cartridges, and other offensive weapons.
The suspects were reportedly picked up at the mining site residence of Polo following a tip-off that the suspects were being housed there and could possibly strike.
Prior to their arrest, the suspects had reportedly moved to the mining concession, which Polo claims he owns, to warn the youth who had sworn to prevent him from engaging in mining activities in the community, not to prevent him from coming onto the concession to conduct mining activities. The youth have said the decision of the small-scale miner to drag the Chief and other Opinion Leaders of the community to court over the concession is enough grounds to prevent him from working in the area.
The latest move which the youth have considered as an attempted forceful takeover of the concession caused apprehension and generated tension in the community, as the community youth on the site have vowed to face off against the group sanctioned by Polo to protect the concession.
It would be recalled that the Circuit Court in Bolgatanga remanded Polo into police custody in February for his alleged involvement in a violent clash and firing of firearms at the same Gbane mining site.
He was arrested together with some armed bandits whom he had reportedly hired from Bawku to help him fight and protect the mining concession.
