The leader of the team in charge of monitoring and securing all seized earthmoving and auxiliary equipment used for illegal small-scale mining (galamsey) has revealed that 315 excavators had been seized as of 31 January 2020 but only 127 are left in the central pool in Accra.

According to Nana Boadu, some of the excavators have found their way back into the forest reserves.

He said about 32 are back in the forests of Obuasi, Ashanti Region while about 15 are back in Tarkwa, Western Region.

“Some of the machines have gone back to the mining site”, he told Accra-based Asempa FM’s Ekosii sen talk show on Wednesday, 5 February 2020.

According to him, the team in collaboration with the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service is now investigating how the seized excavators found their way back to the bush.

Apart from the excavators, Nana Boadu said the team is also in charge of all other mining equipment seized from the galamseyers by the Operation Vanguard team. They include fuel pumps, batteries, and ‘chan fans’.

About a week ago, the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, disclosed that some of the 500 excavators allegedly seized by the Inter-Ministerial Committee Against Illegal Small-Scale Mining had gone missing.

In an interview with Accra-based Joy FM, Prof Frimpong-Boateng said: “We were told that 500 [excavators] had been seized and given to the district assemblies but later on, when we went out to check, the figure was far less than that”.

Asked the exact figures, Prof Frimpong-Boateng answered: “I cannot tell you exactly what but I can tell you it was far lower than the 500 put out”.

He, however, noted that the earthmoving equipment that went missing, were in the custody of the district assemblies. “That was the case in most of the areas, so, we sent people out there to talk to the district assemblies and we got Vanguard involved and most of them had disappeared”, Prof Frimpong-Boateng said.

On Tuesday, 4 February 2020, the CID issued a statement announcing the arrest of six suspects in connection with the missing excavators.

They include the suspended Central Regional Vice-Chair of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Horace Ekow Ewusie.

The others are Frederick Ewusi, Joel Asamoah, Adam Haruna, Frank Gyan and John Arhin.

Ekow Ewusi, Frederick Ewusi and Joel Asamoah have been cautioned on the offence of stealing while Adnan Haruna, Frank Gyan and John Arhin have been cautioned on the offence of abetment of stealing.

The CID statement said the suspects were arrested on Monday, 3 February 2020 at Abelemkpe in Accra.