, Professor Nana Ama Klutse, has disclosed chilling details of a violent confrontation between illegal miners and a joint EPA enforcement team, which resulted in a serious road accident that left several officials and journalists injured near Obuasi in the Ashanti Region.){kind=link}
The Chief Executive Officer of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), Professor Nana Ama Klutse, has disclosed chilling details of a violent confrontation between illegal miners and a joint EPA enforcement team, which resulted in a serious road accident that left several officials and journalists injured near Obuasi in the Ashanti Region.
Prof. Klutse explained that the incident occurred during a three-week nationwide anti-galamsey operation targeting the networks that support illegal mining in water bodies.
“The operation…it’s a three-week plan that the EPA has to ensure that the services that others provide for mining in our water bodies, which is illegal, are also tackled. We realized it is not just enough to say, ‘stop mining in the rivers’; we needed to deal with the suppliers,” she said.
According to Prof. Klutse, the EPA team, which included military and national security officers, had been inspecting illegal mining sites at Dadwene, a community near Obuasi, when they were ambushed by armed miners.
“On our way near Obuasi, we saw galamsey happening on the ground, so we decided to have a look. When we stopped and walked into the area, they all ran away. By the time we got there, they had left. We noticed three excavators operating directly in the river, blocking it and diverting the flow. It was really a bad situation,” she recounted.
She said the team was later confronted by heavily armed men in black uniforms marked “CID,” prompting security officers to call for restraint and withdraw from the area to avoid a deadly exchange of fire.
“We had the military and national security with us, but we couldn’t exchange fire, so we had to run for our lives,” Prof. Klutse revealed.
While retreating through Afari, the convoy was advised by their command in Accra to divert their route for safety reasons. Unfortunately, during the diversion, one of the vehicles collided head-on with a truck believed to be transporting pipes used for illegal mining operations.
“Just before we reached Kumasi, we had the head-on collision,” she said.
Several people sustained serious injuries, including an Adom TV correspondent who suffered a head injury and a Joy TV cameraman who sustained a broken thigh. Other EPA officials and journalists on board were also hurt.
Prof. Klutse expressed gratitude that no lives were lost and commended the health workers attending to the injured victims.
“We thank God that we all have our lives. It is just unfortunate that we have some injuries. We have spoken to the doctors and nurses to pay special attention to them because they were injured while on national duty,” she said.