The President of the Obuasi Youth Community Miners Association, Emmanuel Ayamba has asked Anglogold Ashanti Mines to leave an abandoned site to the community in order for peace to prevail.
According to him, the community has been working on the site in contention for a very long time. He noted that Anglogold is suddenly is preventing the youth from working on that abandoned site.
In an interview with Kwadwo Sefah-Danquah on Happy 98.9 FMs morning show, the President revealed that the company has cordoned off the abandoned site with wire mesh.
“Even though the concession belongs to the company, the community had also been working on the abandoned site since the 80s and 90s so we were also following suit until the company officially banned us from the site from the year 2000. The company handed over the site to us again from 2008 after we petitioned the late former President John Evans Fiifi Atta mills.”
We don’t know what happened, the company suddenly changed their mind and prevented the community from working on the site meanwhile that’s the only thing the youth also survive on since there are no job opportunities here”, he added.
“This has been ongoing for a very long time and this is not the first time, so if authorities want peace to prevail in Obuasi, the company should leave the abandoned site for the community” he emphasized.