By Dennis Peprah, GNA
Tanoso, (Ahafo), Aug. 20, GNA – The Tanoso Youth Association (TYA) in the Tano North Municipality of the Ahafo Region has defended the Ankobeahene (sub-chief) of the town Nana Amoako-Atta disclaiming his alleged involvement in illegal mining.
The association criticised the Tano North Municipal Security Committee (MISEC) for its inactiveness in stemming the growing galamsey activities round the Tano River course in the area.
The Ghana News Agency (GNA) gathered that the Police picked Nana Amoako-Atta on Sunday August 16, 2026, for his alleged involvement in galamsey.
He has since been granted bail.
Addressing a news conference at Tanoso, the aggrieved youth, lauded the dedication of Nana Amoako-Atta in fighting the menace.
Flanked by other executives and members of the Association, Mr Samuel Frimpong, the Chairman of the TYA, explained that Nana Amoako-Atta had been playing an instrumental role in the fight against galamsey in the area.
He indicated that recently the chief mobilised some youth of the town, stormed an illegal galamsey site, seized some bags of sand suspected to be gold dust and handed it over to the Tanoso Police for safe keeping.
Mr Frimpong explained that when Nana Amoako-Atta and the youth followed up, the Police could not produce the bags of sand, which he added infuriated them.
He said because the sub-chief was determined to fight the galamsey, he mobilised the youth again, and they seized additional bags of sand from the illegal mining sites.
“The chief decided to store the bags of sand at the Tanoso palace for safe keeping in the process the police came to arrest him for engaging in galamsey”, Mr Frimpong explained.
Describing his arrest as a ploy, he challenged Mr Pious Opoku, the Tano North Municipal Chief Executive and the Chairman of the MISEC to stem the galamsey, alleging that the MISEC was aware of all the illegal mining sites in the area.
He indicated that the association had not held any press conference in the town linking the sub-chief to galamsey activities, as reported in the media.
Mr Frimpong said it was some youth from Techire community who held that news conference, and called for government’s intervention to stop the galamsey, alleging that some government officials in the municipality actively aiding and ‘in bed’ with the illegal miners in the area.
Mr Owusu Ahenkan, the Assembly Member for the Tanoso Electoral Area, also condemned the arrest of the sub-chief and regretted the spread of galamsey sites at Adongo, Adagyamem and Adrobaa and Sukuumu communities.
He described the destruction of the Tano River course as alarming and warned that the youth would hit the street of the Tanoso Township if the MISEC failed to stop the menace by the end of August 2026.
Besides the destruction of the Tano River, Mr Ahenkan expressed worry that the galamsey activities had denied many women farmers their livelihoods, saying that the illegal miners had destroyed several acres of farm lands and corps in the area.
For Mr Lord Amoah, the Organiser of the TYA, if the MISEC failed to address the galamsey, then the Tanoso youth would also be left with no other option than to also engage in the galamsey for their livelihoods.
“We can’t sit down for people from elsewhere to come and do the galamsey and destroy our livelihoods.
So, if nothing is being done to stop them, then we are all going to engage in the galamsey”, Mr Amoah fumed.
GNA
Edited by Linda Asante Agyei
Reporter: Dennis Peprah
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