Some personnel of the Ashanti Regional Secretariat of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) and the Ghana Police Service have recovered two bodies from an abandoned mining pit at Adobewura in the Atwima Mponua District of the Ashanti Region.
The deceased have been identified as 25-year old Yaa Nyarkowaa, and 26-year-old Oba Yaa, who are related to each other.
The two, according to NADMO officials, entered the pit on Saturday to mine, when it caved in.
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According to the Ashanti Regional NADMO Coordinator, Kwabena Nsenkyire, the bodies have been deposited at the Nhyinahin Government Hospital morgue.
He called on illegal miners to exercise restraint, as the government prepares to lift the ban on all forms of small-scale mining.
“His excellency Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo has informed all of us that, by December he is going to lift the ban on small scale mining, so all of us should exercise patience for the ban to be lifted, if the ban was lifted, there would have been a safety officer or NADMO officer around the area, he could have advised them not to get in the pit,so we should all exercise patience and just listen to the government,” he said.
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In April 2018 a 23-year old illegal miner drowned in a pit after he went in search of gold near the Offin River in the Atwima Mponua District of the Ashanti Region.
According to reports, Abu Ibrahim went with his colleague to mine in the pit connected to the River near Amadaa and got drowned.
In March 2018, two pupils of the Methodist Primary School at Akyem Takorase in the Denkyembuor District of the Eastern Region lost their lives when they went swimming in an abandoned galamsey pit.
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The deceased pupils, Kwaku Bright, and Jonas Aryeetey, both under age eight, went with a third person, Francis Dzifa to swim in the pit located in an area called Jobs Crama.
Although the government has banned all forms of small-scale mining, some persons outwit members of the anti-illegal mining task-force Operation Vanguard to mine illegally.
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