{"id":114781,"date":"2026-02-10T11:15:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T11:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=114781"},"modified":"2026-02-10T11:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T11:15:13","slug":"four-arrested-after-clash-with-naimos-team-at-illegal-mining-site-in-nzema-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=114781","title":{"rendered":"Four arrested after clash with NAIMOS team at illegal mining site in Nzema East"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Four armed men guarding an illegal mining site at Anbanzie in the Nzema East District of the Western Region have been arrested after a night operation by the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat.<\/p>\n

The operation took place on February Monday 9 2026, between 6.00 p.m. and 8.30 p.m according to a Facebook post by the deputy CEO of the Forestry Commission, Elikem Kotoko.<\/p>\n

The secretariat said its task force met violent resistance while attempting to enter the site during an intelligence-led exercise.<\/p>\n

According to the secretariat, about fifteen men armed with cutlasses and wearing cowries around their bodies tried to block the convoy and attacked personnel carrying out their lawful duties.<\/p>\n

Officers overpowered the group and arrested four suspects, while others fled. The team later raided and destroyed the illegal mining installation at the location.<\/p>\n

The suspects were identified as Massawudu Alhassan, 34, Zuberu Ahmidu, 32, William Boateng, 28, and Ernest Abeka, 22.<\/p>\n

Preliminary questioning indicated the four were among a group recruited by the site owner to guard the operation. They told investigators that about 28 individuals had been engaged for that purpose.<\/p>\n

The suspects have been handed over to the Salma Police Station to assist with further investigations and possible prosecution.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the exercise, Colonel Dominic Buah, Director of Operations of the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat, warned illegal mining operators and armed guards to desist from attacking taskforce personnel.<\/p>\n

He said members of the team would defend themselves against any resistance encountered during operations.<\/p>\n

The secretariat said it will continue intelligence-led operations in mining areas to curb illegal mining and protect communities and natural resources.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Four armed men guarding an illegal mining site at Anbanzie in the Nzema East District of the Western Region have been arrested after a night operation by the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,2004,8770,117,16671,10,9,1907],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-mining","category-naimos","category-news","category-nzema-east","category-politics","category-popular","category-regional"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114781\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}