Ellembelle Police Chief ‘Fired’ Over Missing Excavators

The Ellembele Divisional Police Commander, ACP Dodzi Hlordzi, has been interdicted by the Ghana Police Service to allow investigation into the circumstances that led to the disappearance of excavators in the district. This also comes after the District Chief Executive for Ellembele in the Western Region, Mr Kwasi Bonzoh, was assaulted,

handcuffed and pushed into a waiting white pick-up vehicle by a team of police officers who accused him of obstructing operation. The officers were reportedly escorting the excavator, one of the missing Ellembelle excavators retrieved from a forest within the district to Takoradi when the incident happened. The police and the

DCE have been involved in an untangling snafu after two excavators seized on Tuesday, August 30, by a combined team of members of the Ellembelle District Mining Committee and District Security Council went missing. The excavators were seized close to the Nkroful Agriculture Senior High School from their owners for

allegedly engaging in illegal mining. After accusations and counter-accusations, Kwasi Bonzoh was arrested by the police and later granted bail. While the case was under investigation, the DCE got hint of an excavator being transported from the district to Takoradi with police providing escort, while he was on his way to

Sekondi for a radio programme. The DCE and his team reportedly tracked the machine to a spot close to the Ankobra Beach Resort, but could not stop it. He managed to stop the truck transporting the excavator when it slowed down on bumping strips a few meters to the Axim junction. The DCE reportedly identified the

excavator as one of the missing excavators, and while enquiring from the driver where he was taking the excavator to, some plain-clothed officers in a white pick-up and Nissan patrol car came out and confronted him and a scuffle ensued. The DCE was arrested by the officers, who sent him to the Western Regional Police Command. 

Police Statement

The police command yesterday confirmed the arrest of Mr. Bonzoh, asserting that while team of police officers was escorting the excavator to the Takoradi, the DCE then organised and led some thugs to attack the police by obstructing police operation. Police in a statement, indicated that the DCE and three others were therefore

arrested accordingly. The statement said the police, through days of intelligence operations, on Tuesday, September 6, 2022, retrieved one of the excavators that was reported missing from Ellembelle. A team of operations and intelligence officers working day and night discovered the missing excavator several

kilometres into a forest within the Ellembelle District. Investigation continues to recover the other excavator and arrest all those behind it to face justice, the statement noted.