Three persons have met their untimely death in their desperate attempt to outrun officials from the Forestry Commission after they were caught carting a truck load of woods from Sekyere Krobo in the Wassa East District of the Western Region on Wednesday, February 23.
Ten others who were with the deceased also suffered various degrees of injury.
Information available to Connect FM suggests that the forest around Sekyere Krobo has become a target for illegal chainsaw operators, destroying it with careless abandon.
Due to the worrisome activities of the illegal chainsaw operators, the Forestry Commission has set up a taskforce that patrols the area in an effort to stop the illegality.
Unfortunately, the illegal chainsaw operators have studied the patrol time and in their bid to outsmart the officers will normally do the loading and carting of the woods in the thick of the night, sometimes 3:00am.
On Wednesday, February 23, a group of young men who were carting a truckload of woods at about 3:00am from Sekyere Krobo somehow received an alert that a patrol team is on to them.
“So the driver decided to outrun the patrol team. So he was driving on top speed. But when we got to Mpintenso, there was this big pothole on the road. The driver could not dodge it and so we dumped hard into it. The truck overturned and spilled all of us together with the woods. We were 13 sitting on the pack of woods in the bucket. The packed woods fell on us. We cried for help and some residents came to our rescue. Unfortunately, Ben [Gasie], Yaw [Drodro] and [Yaw] Lapo could not make it,” one of the survivors narrated.
The deceased are between 18 and 28 years.
Assembly member for Sekyre Krobo Eric Kweku Yamoah Arthur told Connect FM that the remaining ten that survived are currently receiving treatment at the Ahamadiya Hospital at Daboase.
“The police has also visited the scene and have since commenced investigations.”
Discussion about this post