Soldiers Have Been On Site Since June 2019
…Cooks On-Site
…Soldiers Take GH¢30 Daily
…Rotation Every 2 months
Despite the withdrawal of all military personnel from mining sites across the country, DAYBREAK can confirm that the 36 fully armed military men protecting miners degrading the forest of Manso in the Ashanti region have been on the site since June 2019.
The 36 soldiers are made up of one officer and 35 men with rotation done every two months.
According to our reliable sources, the soldiers were sent to the site allegedly on the blind side of the then Chief of Army Staff, Major General WA Ayamdo by persons within the Ghana Armed Forces who have longstanding dealings with the illegal company of miners since 2015.
Again, DAYBREAK is told the soldiers went there for one-week operations and are paid GH¢30 daily allowances with three ladies on the site as cooks.
In October 2020, DAYBREAK gathers that Lieutenant Owusu-Ansah, who is the Adjutant to the GOC Central Command, together with W01 Akwase, led a team to change the guard. Lieutenant Owusu-Ansah’s team was made up of 5 soldiers from the 4th Battalion and 31 soldiers from Central Command Headquarters.
A report filed by Erastus Asare Donkor of the Multimedia Group suggests that some armed Military men are guarding illegal Chinese Miners in the Manso forest.
In the video which has been shared on social media, the Task Force, which has been mandated to fight illegal mining, saw military uniforms on the premises, where illegal mining was ongoing, suggesting that the Chinese are enjoying some protection from some unauthorized military sources.
They decided to pick the uniforms but the Military personnel, who drove in, numbering over 30, angrily took back the uniforms picked up by the Task Force, sparking a heated argument with some vigilantes.
The Military forced the Joy News reporter to stop recording what was going on and forcibly deleted videos from their cameras.
They also destroyed the driving mirror of the car used by the Multimedia Group.
The Task Force is prevented from leaving the mining site and the Chinese Nationals are released while calls from the Military High Command and the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology ensured that the Task Force quit operations in the mining site.
