The Takoradi Circuit court B yesterday granted bail to 12 persons alleged to be engaged in illegal small scale mining activities at Kadadwen in Tarkwa a Community here in the Western Region
The suspects are made up of six Ghanaians and six Chinese. They were arrested on September 13 suspected to be engage in galamsey in a community in Tarkwa after news of missing excavators in Ellembelle.
The suspects were charged with mining without a licence, conspiracy to commit a crime and illicit trafficking of firearms.
The council for the accused Nana Nyarko Cudjoe argued that the suspects were picked from their homes and not from any illegal site.
The Prosecution Team led by Superintendent Stephen Adom prayed the court to deny the accused persons bail as they are needed for investigation.
“12 people including some Chinese nationals were picked up by the police at dawn for conspiring and engaging in illegal mining. As the law requires they came to court but based on the facts the prosecution presented we realised that there are so many potholes in it.
Based on that, the court granted them bail because the police themselves cannot show that they arrested them on the galamsey site and the excavators that they claim retrieved from them can not be pinpointed.
So at the end of the day, the court agreed that they can be granted bail just that the passports of the Chinese Nationals were ceased by the court and I believe this is a fair outcome,” He said.
Story by Janelle Jones
