The anti-galamsey taskforce has mounted a vehement denial its men shot, battered and killed galamsey miners in the Eastern Region over the weekend.
Members of the taskforce told the Eastern Region Security Committee they had no hand whatsoever in the killing of the four people because they were not even present at the site and on the night of the incident.
Residents of Kwabeng in the Eastern region are boiling with anger after four bodies of illegal miners were discovered close to a mining pit at Akyem Akukuso.
The deceased persons were reported to have been shot and beaten to death with the butt of the gun.
The residents are blaming the deaths on the taskforce charged with the responsibility to end the illegal mining activities in the Eastern, Western, and Ashanti Regions of Ghana.
But members of the taskforce have denied the accusations.
A homicide unit of the Ghana Police Service has been dispatched to the area to investigate the cause of the deaths.
On Monday a planned meeting by the Eastern Region REGSEC to begin investigations into the matter was rescheduled because members of the operation Vanguard, failed to show up.
They were however present Tuesday and were vehement in denial.
“What came out of the meeting was that, they were not the ones to be blamed for the deaths of those four gentlemen because the deaths did happen in midnight but they don’t operate after 6:00 pm because they don’t know the terrain very well and the whole area has been dug. There are pits and trenches which make it difficult for them to work in the night,” the Eastern Region Minister Eric Kwakye Dafuor explained the position of the Vanguard team to Joy News.
The minister said a report by the police hospital that the deceased persons did not die from gunshot wounds adds credibility to the story of the taskforce.
The Commander of the taskforce reiterated that his men could not have committed that crime.
Colonial William Agyepong who was part of the REGSEC meeting said the taskforce is on track and will carry out its mandate under the law.
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