The Western Regional Police Command is looking into the District Chief Executive of Ellembelle, Kwasi Bonzoh, his personal assistant, and another individual in connection with the missing excavators used by illicit miners in Nkroful.
The Police Service refuted earlier reports in which the DCE is said to have alleged that the two excavators used by illegal small-scale miners at Nkroful and in the care of the Ellembelle Police had vanished in a statement issued by the Police Service and signed by the Head of Public Affairs at the Command, Superintendent Olivia Tawiah Adiku.
“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.
Meanwhile, when Citi News approached DCE Kwasi Bonzoh for comment, he urged the police to proceed with any probe because he never made those charges.
“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.
On August 31, 2022, the DCE, who also serves as the Chairman of the Ellembelle District Security Council, received a distress call from the Headmaster of Nkroful Agriculture Secondary School regarding unlawful mining operations on areas of the school’s concession.
The DCE stated that he called the Divisional Police Commander, ACP Dodzi Hlordzi, and informed him that the excavators had been moved to Teleku Bokazu and that they needed men to protect them while they looked for a vehicle to transport them to a safer location, which resulted in the release of two people to go and protect the excavators.
