Ten Chinese illegal miners have appeared before an Accra circuit court for possessing eight pump action guns without authority.
They are Wei Hanwei, excavator engineer; Huang Huan Kao, mechanic; Meng Xing Gou, mechanic; Zhang Xiong Fei, engineer and Li Hia Jian, mechanic.
The others are He Shei Lin, engineer, Lu Shun Ming, Wei Guo Cai, Zhou Ping and Li Qichao, all mechanics.
The prosecution, led by ASP Stephen Adjei, averred that the accused persons on May 9, 2015 at Obuasi had in their possession eight pump action guns, one locally made pistol with four 38mm live ammunition, 21 9mm live ammunition and 198 cartridges without lawful authority.
Appearing before the court presided over by Justice Francis Obiri, the accused persons, speaking through an interpreter, denied the offense and were remanded into police custody.
Nasigri Seidu, counsel for the accused persons, applied for bail for all ten accused persons but the trial judge fixed May 18, 2015 to consider whether or not to grant the bail.
The facts of the case as presented by ASP Adjei are that following information received to the effect that some Chinese nationals were engaged in illegal mining at Obuasi and its environs, personnel from the National Operations Unit, led by C/ Supt Peter Ndekugri, mounted an operation which led to the arrest of the accused persons.
He said searches conducted on them revealed the aforestated items and four communication equipment.
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By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson
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