Nine(9) soldiers on national duties to Goaso in the Ahafo Region narrowly escaped lynching from armed galamseyers after they arrested them.
The soldiers had spotted an illegal mining site at Bronikrom near Hwidiem, stormed the site and arrested the owner. They were also reported to have confiscated two vehicles, mobile phones and two pistols, and set some wooden structures and mining equipment belonging to the owner on fire.
The move did not go down well with some residents of the area numbering over 600, who stormed Hwidiem police station where the soldiers had gone to lodge an official complaint and demanded the immediate release of the two seized vehicles and requested the police to hand over the soldiers to to be disciplined.
The irate mob vandalised and smashed the windscreen of a Toyota Hilux pick-up with registration number AD 7191 -25 belonging to the NAIMOS team.
Upon hearing the volatile and developing situation at Hwidiem station, reinforcement from the Regional Headquarters was deployed to Hwidiem to help calm the situation.
On arrival, seven male and one female military officers were met at the charge office, whilst two others were at the CID offices under police protection, as the irate mob was getting agitated and uncontrollable, demanding the release of the ignition keys of the seized vehicles.
Realising that the situation was getting worse, coupled with the fact that it was getting late and more importantly, there was a power outage, which the mob could take advantage of to attack the station. It was agreed between the police, the military and the Zongo Chief of Hwidiem Zarikyi, Mohammed Bashiru, who had earlier spoken to the mob to exercise restraint but to no avail. The ignition keys of the seized vehicles be released to their owners to calm down the situation, which had reached its peak.
The zongo chief offered to release his personal Toyota Sequia 4×4 to rescue the military to a safe location, but in the process of taking the hostage soldiers to safety, the Toyota Sequia 4×4 was vandalised, and the back windscreen was smashed.
