The Police have arrested two persons in connection with the death of Anglogold Ashanti’s Communication Director, John Owusu.
John Owusu died over the weekend following clashes between workers of the mining firm and illegal miners.
Officials at Anglogold prior to the incident had consistently complained about their mine concessions being taken over by the illegal miners.
Speaking to Citi Business News, the Ashanti Regional Police PRO, ASP Mohammed Yussif Tanko said the region has dispatched a SWOT team to assist the Obuasi Police to protect lives and properties of the company.
“We have given men and the men are from our SWOT team here in the region to go and assist the Obuasi Police and as I speak to you they are still there and working and they are under an officer. If you are aware of what happened, the communications manager was alleged to have died when some youth were chasing them,
“As I speak to you, we have two people in custody and those two people have been arrested because they caused damaged to the property of the company but we are yet to link them to the death but they are to assist in investigations into what happened at Anglogold,” ASP Mohammed Yussif Tanko said.
Meanwhile the Acting Head of Operations at Anglogold, Fred Nsarko in an interview with Citi Business News confirming the presence of the police said the company was losing confidence in the ability and capacity of the police to protect them. “When the incident happened the police commander in the this case, the Kumasi team on site, called for reinforcement which came from the Regional Command to augment the numbers that he had since the numbers of the illegal miners he was dealing with were more,” “They brought some men numbering about 13 to add to what they had which were a little over 30 and two water cannons but we are saying you are dealing with hundreds of numbers so I guess the numbers of the Police were still not adequate for the Police to what they wanted to do,” Fred Nsarko observed.
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By: Norvan Acquah – Hayford/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
