Tension is mounting in Prestea-Nsuta, a farming community in the Prestea Huni-Valley District of the Western Region, over what has been described as the “rampant destruction” of forest reserves and farm lands by illegal gold miners.
Information emanating from Prestea-Nsuta and its surrounding communities has it that residents, including chiefs, are bracing up against illegal miners for their illegal activities.
Residents, particularly members of the Prestea Communicators for Development (PCD), a youth group in the area, Today gathered, have vowed to fiercely resist any attempt by illegal miners to continue to destroy forest reserves and farm lands in the area.
However, more than one hundred farmers who disclosed this to Today in an interview yesterday expressed shock at the state at which these illegal miners were using excavators to destroy a forest reserve belonging to the Forestry Commission.
According to the farmers, the miners were linked to some “big men” in the country, and that they were being shielded by the police, and other authorities in the district.
“We now understand why President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has decided to shut down illegal mining,” one farmer stated. We are shocked at the level of “destruction” they are doing to the forest.
According to the farmers, authorities protecting the forest were aware of the destruction going on, and could therefore, not understand why they have decided to allow the forest reserve to be destroyed.
According to the farmers, each morning when they are going to the farm, the Forestry Commission has been using their pick-up vehicle to chase them.
They told Today that these miners are inside the “Forest Reserve” mining brutally and destroying the forest.
Minerals & Mining Matters
…with Freeman Koryekpor Awlesu