Wassa Fise queenmother calls for more arrests in attack on Golden Star Resources

Queenmother of the Wassa Fiase Traditional Area Nana Abena Kunadjoa II has called on her people to give up suspects linked to the destruction of properties worth millions of dollars at the Wassa Mines of the Golden Star Resources, Benso in the Western Region.

She was speaking to journalists who had toured the facility.

On Thursday, March 16, small-scale illegal miners set 12 vehicles among other assets including excavators, ambulances, land cruisers and pick-ups ablaze, forcing the staff of the company to run for their lives.

The police have since arrested 33 suspects.

Speaking to the media, the queen mother, who was sad at the situation, called on her people to help to bring the perpetrators to justice.

“I wept when I saw the burnt vehicles.

I want to tell my people that if anyone knows the whereabouts of these perpetrators, they should inform the police for their arrest,” she pleaded.

Nana Abena Kunadjoa II

Meanwhile, the Corporate Affairs Manager for Golden Star Resources, Gerald Boakye, says the company will have to be closed down for about three months at a great cost which will invariably affect their contribution to government’s Gold for Oil programme.

“We haven’t actually calculated the cost but just for the purposes of analysis [you saw],22 of them with their screens smashed.

The dump truck itself will cost about $478,000, so to replace those, if we are taking just a fifth to repair the screen, that’s a lot of money.

“The light vehicles, I won’t differentiate between ambulances and land cruisers, pick-ups but roughly (it costs) an amount of 60,000 average per light vehicle and just bear in mind, we didn’t buy these at current prices, so it’s depreciated but now we have to secure them at current prices.”

He added that they could get some dividends from insurance “but how about the time to recover?

So whilst we are waiting to restore all these operations, we will be losing out”.

By Ewurama Smith|Connect FM|3news.com|Ghana