Government’s anti-illegal mining taskforce, Operation Vanguard says it is on the lookout for persons impersonating its officers and duping unsuspecting Ghanaians.
This follows the arrest of two persons who posed as members of the taskforce in the Ashanti and Western Regions.
The taskforce is responsible for ensuring that illegal mining activities are not taking place in any part of the country.
Some unscrupulous persons have since been taking advantage of the team’s mandate to parade themselves as members and exploiting unsuspecting Ghanaians claiming to among other things, protect them from being arrested for undertaking illegal mining activities.
The Public Relations Officer of Operation Vanguard, Captain Andy Sowatey, who spoke to Citi News said the two persons have been handed to the police for investigation and possible prosecution.
“We are investigating two individuals we posed as Operation Vanguard Personnel. One of them was apprehended on 11th July. He was identified as Arnold Gyedu, 33 who has been handed to the Fomena Police [Ashanti Region] for investigations and Richard Nkrumah, 35, who was arrested at Bogoso Junction in the Western Region. We are on the lookout for them, we are doing our very best to limit the incidents of people claiming to be operating in the name of Operation Vanguard.”
Meanwhile, the task force says its operations are now more active. Earlier in July, the team arrested 85 illegal miners in the Eastern Region alone.
“It is not necessarily that the fight is not being won. What is happening is that while we are trying to get these illegal miners, we are finding better ways of conducting our operations.”
“With the changes in the way we are conducting our operations, we are now able to get better results in terms of the arrests that we are getting,” Captain Sowatey said in a previous interview.
