Eight illegal miners have been arrested for unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition in Gbane, a mining site in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region.
The suspects were rounded up by a combined team of police and military following intelligence that they had been brought into the community by a small-scale miner, Zongdan Boyak Kolog, popularly known as Polo, to provide illegal security for a mining concession he claims to own though the concession falls within the mining area of a Chinese large scale mining company.
The arrested individuals have been identified as Masawudu Adam, 33; Yussif Zakari, 26; Abass Nashiru, 18; Abunkrugu James, 19; Abdulai Mbelba, 18; Abdulai Aziz, 32; Yussif Mbelba, 46; and Nicholas Yin, 45.
Security sources say the joint police and military team conducted a thorough search of the house and discovered the arms and ammunition concealed in one of the rooms as residents are calling for the arrest of the miner.
