The Police will not compromise the safety of its men and still respond with maximum force should any group of people attack its men who have been deployed to chase out illegal miners as part of Operation Vanguard.

[contextly_sidebar id=”JrIeGbc6Mwy1knKNkB90fE9ZOKsHWlfn”]”We are not there to harass anybody. We are there to protect our environment. We are there to enforce the law so they should not under any circumstances attack our officers because if they are attacked, our officers have the right to protect themselves,” the Director General of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service ACP David Eklu said to Citi News.

The police will still exercise some restraint within the realms of reason and not resort to unwarranted force, according to ACP Eklu.

“If you try to use force, we will have to use the level force that will subdue the other force that you are using… but they have been trained specifically to exercise the maximum restraint and not to use unnecessary force.”

The incident at Obuasi Anyimadukrom in the Ashanti Region has culminated in residents of the town blocking roads leading to the town to vent their anger after the killing.

The task-force clashed with some illegal miners, who reportedly fired shots at them and pelted them with stones. return fire from the task-force resulted in the death of a 30-year old man identified only as Acheampong

Positive feedback

The police are based Obuasi, Tarkwa and Osino, and ACP Eklu has said the feedback on their operations are generally positive because the people are “happy that these steps have been taken to make sure that we secure and save our environment.”

He revealed that some arrests of illegal miners have been made so far and there was some resistance.

“They were arrested whilst they were doing the illegal mining. Some excavators were seized, some shovels and a lot of sophisticated equipment. Earth-moving equipment was also seized and other equipment that was used to sieve for gold.”

Operation Vanguard is the latest stage in the government strategy to end illegal mining and it began with the deployment of the first batch 400 security personnel from the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) and the Police Service to three regions considered to be the most affected areas.

–

By: Franklin Badu Jnr/Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Anti-galamsey: We’ll match attackers with reasonable force – Police appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.