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The District Chief Executive of Ellembelle, Kwasi Bonzoh is being investigated by the Ghana Police Service over some missing excavators which were used by illegal miners in Nkroful, a community in the district.
The police in a statement said two others, including the personal assistant of the government appointee are also assisting investigations.
False claims
The statement issued and signed by the Head of Public Affairs at the Western Regional Police Command, Superintendent Olivia Tawiah Adiku, however refuted earlier reports where the DCE is said to have alleged that the two excavators used by illegal small-scale miners at Nkroful and were in the care of the Ellembelle Police could not be traced.
“We wish to categorically state that no excavators were handed over to the police by the District Chief Executive of Ellembelle, Mr. Kwasi Bonzoh or any other person from the assembly. We, therefore, urge the public to disregard the publication and treat it with the contempt it deserves”, it stated.
“The DCE, his personal assistant and one other are being investigated in connection with the alleged missing excavators. We wish to assure the public that anybody implicated in the course of the investigation will be taken through the due process of the law”, it noted.
Reaction
Meanwhile, the DCE, Kwasi Bonzoh, has rejected the claims and has urged the police to go ahead with any investigation.
“I’m ready for any investigation, but then the police have shown that they cannot do an impartial investigation because when they came, they ignored all information to the contrary. They were only here so that they could write this statement.”
“I’ve not said that the equipment were in the custody of the police. All I have said consistently from all the videos and audio interviews is that the machines were packed at Teleku-Bokazo and there is no police station at Teleku-Bokazo. If it was in their custody, would we have requested policemen to go and keep watch over it? It wasn’t in their custody, but it was packed at a location near Teleku-Bokazo when it was moved from a galamsey site in Nkroful therefore we needed police protection.
That is why the Police gave two police officers to keep watch over the equipment from 2pm-6 pm… The police were there for 4 hours, and they didn’t see any excavators, yet they didn’t report the complaint that we came and never saw any excavator, only for them to show up yesterday that they didn’t see any excavator and that the excavators were not in their custody”, he responded in an interview with Citi News.
On Wednesday, August 31, 2022, the DCE who is the Chairman of the Ellembelle District Security Council received a distress call from the Headmaster of Nkroful Agriculture Secondary School about an illegal mining activity on portions of the school’s concession.
The DCE said he called the Divisional Police Commander ACP Dodzi Hlordzi where he told him the team had been able to move the excavators to Teleku Bokazu and needed men to protect them while they look for a vehicle to convey them to a safer location, which led to the release of two persons to go and provide protection for the excavators.
SOURCE:
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