10 Miners arrested Amid thwarted ‘Yere bre’ Demo

10 Members of the Ashanti regional small scale miners association have been arrested by the police in Kumasi for causing trouble and wielding cutlasses, and other sharp objects at the association’s planned demonstration in Kumasi.

Ashanti regional police public relations officer, Juliana Obeng said the miners were being processed for court for the necessary actions to be taken against them.

The small scale miners planned a demonstration to register their displeasure at the government’s stance towards Small Scale Mining after the expiry of the six months ban on their enterprises.

The demonstration was planned to kick off at the Kumasi sports stadium car park but was later directed to Gyamfua Asenso park at Asokwa because the initial venue was going to be used for a different program.

The demonstration was subsequently scuttled by police due to some miscommunication about the number of people expected to take part in the protest

Police PRO, Juliana Obeng told Otec fm reporter, Nana Asare Barima that the demonstration was scuttled because of inconsistency on the part of the small scale miners who initially told the police they were expecting 200 demonstrators but later increased the number to 5000.

She explained that police personnell had been deployed to maintain order at Alaba lorry terminal, metro mass terminal as well as Nkwanta and as such could not provide enough men to maintain order throughout the demonstration.

The police spokesperson added that they are ready to meet the leadership of the small scale miners association to renegotiate new terms and an appropriate time for the proposed demonstration.

The National P.R.O. for the small scale miners, Mr. Francis Opoku said they were surprised at the police because they had already given them the permit to demonstrate and could not understand why the police would unexpectedly halt the planned demonstration.

Source: otecfmghana.com/Nana Asare Barima