TWO schoolchildren, aged 12 and 15, died at Kyebi in the Eastern Region on Sunday when they fell into a pit dug and abandoned by illegal miners.
Shell-shocked residents said they found the bodies of the two children, Kingsley Effah Agyeman and his 15-year-old elder brother, Kofi Darkwa, in the deep pit at about 3 p.m.
Agyeman, a Class Six pupil of the Methodist Primary and Junior High School at Kyebi, and Darkwa, a JHS Two student of the same school, were said to have gone to their mother’s farm on the other side of the degraded land and were returning home when the tragedy occurred.
According to reports, Agyeman was the first to slip at the edge of the pit and when his brother attempted to rescue him, they both fell into the water-filled pit.
The bodies of the two were later retrieved, after which they were deposited at the Kyebi Government Hospital mortuary.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, the grief-stricken mother of the deceased children, Madam Felicia Twumaa, a 47-year-old farmer, said while she was preparing a meal for her family, some children in the area rushed to her house to inform her about the discovery of the bodies of her two children in the pit.
Commenting on the issue, the Okyenhene, Osagyefuo Amotia Ofori Panin, expressed dismay at the activities of illegal miners whose activities were causing endless suffering to the people of Kyebi.
According to him, the pits were not only claiming the lives of innocent people, particularly children, but were also causing serious destruction to the forest cover, the land and the Birim River which served as the main source of water for the people living in Okyeman.
“While the Birim River is on a daily basis being heavily polluted with poisonous chemicals such as mercury and cyanide and its course diverted by the galamsey miners, our wood cover and cocoa farms are being destroyed at an alarming rate, to the detriment of the people,” the Okyenhene stated.
“We cannot condone such reckless and wanton destruction of our land and river by these selfish illegal miners who are depriving the communities and the state the needed revenue, as they sell the gold mined on the black market,” he added.
Osagyefuo Ofori Panin warned that the traditional authorities and the people of Okyeman would no longer condone the illegal activities of small-scale miners in the area, adding, “We will take charge to protect our land and water bodies which have been the source of our strength if the appropriate authorities fail to help us.”
To that end, he advised those engaged in illegal mining, including citizens of the area and outsiders, to remove all their mining equipment from the land, stressing that they would be made to face the consequences of their actions if they did not heed the warning.
“We are not going to wait until another family suffers another tragedy like this. We are going to fight all illegalities in our land and hope that the government will support us in this endeavour,” the Okyenhene added.
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