A/R: Police stopped miners from staging ‘ye bre’ demo

Police in the Ashanti Region have prevented the Small Scale Miners Association in the region from embarking on their planned demonstration dubbed “Ye Bre” to wit, ‘We Are Suffering’ which was scheduled for today, Tuesday, 12 September 2017.

The police argued that they do not have enough men to protect the demonstrators.

The demonstration was to register their displeasure at government’s stance on small-scale mining after the expiration of the six months ban on their legitimate enterprise.

An executive member of the association, Mr Mike Gizo, who spoke to the media said they notified the police a month before the demonstration day and were assured of police protection, but woke up Tuesday to be told by the Regional Police Commander, COP Ken Yeboah, that they could not grant them protection since they do not have enough men to protect them.

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According to him, some of their members who were on board a bus from Obuasi to the converging area were also blocked by police. He therefore described the act by the police as “unfortunate and “an abuse of their right”.

Mr Gizo noted that they were not only prevented from staging the demonstration, but were not allowed to converge at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium which was booked as a converging place for the demonstration to take-off.

He said they were told by the Sports Council that directive from above said they should not allow them to converge there after having agreed to allow them earlier on.

The miners, however, have given government to the end of this month to address their concerns or they will embark on a massive demonstration nationwide.

Source: radiooneghana.com