Prestea residents demonstrating yesterday
Activities at Prestea, a mining community in the Western Region, came to a standstill yesterday, as thousands of residents poured onto the streets to stage a massive demonstration against what they termed as harassment by military and police personnel.
The Regional Security Council (REGSEC) is leaving no stone unturned in flushing out illegal gold miners, popularly known as ?galamsey? operators, including those who have invaded the concessions of major mining companies operating in the region.
To this end, REGSEC members have embarked on operation ?Calm Life? aimed at getting rid of ?galamsey? operators from the concession of Golden Star Resources Limited, a gold mining company in the Prestea-Hunni Valley District of the region.
Prestea residents demonstrating yesterday
However, the inhabitants of Prestea, who claimed REGSEC was harassing them, decided to hit the streets to express their dissatisfaction with its work.
Clad in red attire and arm-bands, the demonstrators, led by the chief of Himan, Nana Nteboah IV, marched through the principal streets of the community.
They held placards some of which read, ?Prestea is not Afghanistan?, ?Surface mining will kill us?, ?Bring here our processing plant? and Prestea Himan deserves good roads.?
According to them, the Government promised to revamp the underground mine at Prestea to create jobs for ?galamsey? operators in the area.
?Even though Golden Star Resources Limited claimed to have revived the underground mine and had employed some of the youth, we can say it is a camouflage, nothing is going on at the underground,? he alleged.
The aggrieved Prestea residents asserted that the Western Region Minister had connived with the police and the military to harass the people of Prestea under the guise of operation ?Calm Life,? adding ?we don?t want that.?
The demonstrators later presented a petition to President John Mahama through the Prestea/Bogoso District Chief Executive (DCE), Wisdom Cudjoe.
Addressing journalists, the chief of Himan, Nana Nteboah indicated that the area could not boast of motorable roads.
He mentioned that in 2012, the former Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mike Hamah, requested for a year?s action plan aimed at revamping the Prestea underground mine but nothing had been done, adding, ?We will like to know the progress of work so far.?
From Emmanuel Opoku, Prestea
