Army whistleblower Reveals Military High Command Involvement in Galamsey

An individual claiming to be a whistleblower within the Ghanaian military is alleging that the illegal mining activities that were discovered at Tontokrom in the Manso Forest of the Ashanti Region, is an operation co-owned by some people in the top brass of the Army and some Chinese collaborators.

In the wake of the public outcry that has arisen after soldiers guiding the mine confronted and overpowered an anti-illegal mining task force that had tried to arrest the Chinese illegal miners, a supposed attempt by the military high command to employ plausible deniability has annoyed one of the junior rank officers who was reportedly put on guard duties there.
The officer, writing under the pseudonym, ‘Sgt Spears’ has penned an open reaction to the moves by the Army top brass to direct blame to the junior rank officers deployed to the site to guard the illegal Chinese miners.

Sgt Spears, alleges in a 3-page write-up that the illegal mines in question are eleven (11) and that they are co-owned by the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and the Chinese illegal miners. 
The alleged Whistleblower adds that the junior officers are ready to face any enquiry.

One of the reasons for the public outcry over the development is that the junior rank officers deployed there also supervised the manhandling of a crew of journalists from Accra-based JoyNews which had accompanied the taskforce on the operation at Tontokrom.
Sgt. Spears, reveals that they had only carried out guard duties as commanded by the superiors and that they will not allow themselves to be made fall guys for the greed of the ultimate beneficiaries of the illegal mine.

“I am a member of the Ghana Army, Central command Hq, SNCO,it has come to our notice the lies the Military High Command and our Useless GOC is peddling in Daily Guide concerning the TONTOKROM OPERATIONS. We were deployed to TONTOKROM for a day’s operation turn to months and years,” Sgt. Spears wrote.

“June 2019 we were 35 soldiers sent there only for us to guard Chinese people doing illegal miner. my last deployment to TONTOKROM was 23rd Sept 2020 to 28th Dec 2020, we were 35 soldiers plus one officer, 30 soldiers, from Central Command HQ and 5 soldiers from 4 BN of Infantry.”

According to him, their leader was one LT. Owusu Ansah, Adjutant at the Army Central Command. 
He further names the other soldiers as WO Senyabor, WO Akwase, WO Gibilim of 4bn, SSgt Quarcoo, SSgt Mohammed also of 4BN, SGT Anyame, SGT Lerbi, S/SGT Oppong, S/SGT Oppong Kyei, SGT Boadu, SGT Sarfo, SGT Boadum and SGT Opoku.
Others are SSgt Nninyim, Cpl Arthur 1, Cpl Arthur 2, l/Cpl Nankong, l/Cpl Kabgetor, 
 l/Cpl Adira and 14 other soldiers.

S/SSgt Amakyi has been in the forest for over a year doing wood and tree business for the GOC.
According to him, one S/Sgt AmakyiI has been on deployment to the forest doing wood and tree business for the General Officer Commanding (GOC) for over a year.
He reveals that upon their deployment they were promised that if they work hard on the galamsey mine guard duties they have been assigned they will be allowed to go on peace missions abroad.

“We are been used as slaves in the forest as we have been told by a man called Mr DONALD that the COAS and GOC are shareholders of the Galamsey with the China people. So if we work hard we shall go on operations and get our promotions early,” the alleged soldier revealed.
He adds that they are paid Ghc20 a day on the guard duties and that they are usually paid by one Lt. Owusu Ansah.
The Whistleblowing soldier also revealed that three cooks prepare meals for them in the forest namely Madam Julie, Madam Felicia and one Ameriya.

According to him, they never took a break since their deployment to the site in 2019 and that they were forced to remain on site even during Christmas and were only relieved by another squad on the 28th of December.