Army chief suspended over ‘galamsey’

Lieutenant Colonel GNK Hoenyedzi, Commanding Officer of 2 Battalion of Infantry (2Bn), Takoradi has been recalled to the Southern Command Headquarters as he faces a Board Of Inquiry (BOI) for his suspected galamsey related activities.

He has also been said to have engaged in illegal seizure of cars and provided armed escorts for galamsey operatives in a region which is unrivalled in illegal mining.

According to sources, Lieutenant Colonel GNK Hoenyedzi’s cup got full two months ago when a chief in the Western Region who happens to be his friend seized some excavators on his concession and brought them to the unit for safekeeping.

Trouble however erupted when questions were posed about the excavators the matter having reached the desk of the then Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Major General OB Akwa now the Chief of The Defence Staff (CDS).

When the COAS ordered investigations, the Commanding Officer reportedly feigned knowledge of any excavator in the unit repeating same to the Police when they too in the course of investigations approached him.

The COAS who was smarter than Lieutenant Colonel GNK Hoenyedzi immediately ordered that all equipment in the unit should stand still.

Lieutenant Colonel GNK Hoenyedzi was therefore unable to move the excavators out of the unit’s premises and he was found to have palpably lied to his superior, the COAS.

In line with military standards he was slapped with an intermediary sanction of an interdiction as investigations continue on him especially against the backdrop of fresh malfeasances of serious dimension.