Crime & Punishment of Thursday, 24 February 2022
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2022-02-243 illegal chainsaw operators die in attempt to escape Forestry Guards
10 other persons have sustained various degrees of injuries from the accident
Police commence investigations into Sekyere Krobo accident
10 sustain injuries in Sekyere Krobo accident
Illegal wood harvesting rampant in Sekyere Krobo
Some three suspected illegal chainsaw operators have reportedly lost their lives in a bid to escape from officials of the Forestry Commission at Sekyere Krobo in the Wassa East District of the Western Region.
According
Read full articleto a Daily Guide report sighted by GhanaWeb, the incident happened on Wednesday, February 24, 2022.
The deceased persons who have been identified as; Ben Gasie, 18, Yaw Drodro, 28, and Yaw Lapo, 20, were attempting to flee from the officials after they were caught transporting wood into a truck.
Confirming the incident, the Assembly Member for Sekyere Krobo, Eric Kwaku Yamoah Arthur noted how a forest around the area had become a prime spot for illegal chainsaw operators.
According to the assemblyman, the activities of the illegal operators led the Forestry Commission to deploy a taskforce to patrol the forest.
The illegal chainsaw operators having studied the patrol schedule of the task force, resorted to undertaking their activities in the thick of the night.
The assemblyman in an interview with Connect FM noted that the deceased illegal operators who happened to be carting a truckload of wood, received a tip off and sought to outsmart the patrol team.
“So the driver decided to outrun the patrol team. So he was driving on top speed. But when we got to Mpintenso, there was this big pothole on the road.
“The driver could not dodge it and so we bumped hard into it. The truck overturned and spilled all of us together with the woods. We were 13 sitting on the pack of woods in the bucket. The packed wood fell on us,” he stated.
Some ten other persons who survived the accident are said to have sustained various degrees of injuries and are receiving treatment at the Ahmadiyya Hospital at Daboaso.
The police has since commenced investigations into the matter.
