Operation Vanguard Issues Alert – Over Foreigners Ayanfuri Riot

The government’s anti-illegal mining task force, Operation Vanguard has issued a security alert over incidents of lawlessness at Ayanfuri in the Ashanti Region.

The Vanguard team in a report issued on Saturday said some Nigerians and persons of other nationals who peddle drugs and other vices in the area have been involved in inciting local people to cause confusion.

“There have also been confirmed reports of a number Nigerians and other nationals who are engaged in drug dealing and other vices inciting the youth in rioting and causing damage to property and accosting persons passing through the town,” the report said.

The team’s observation followed a case of rioting it said occurred at about 4pm on Friday.

It noted that while one of its patrol team was headed for the Perseus Mines in the Ayanfuri area general area, they were halted by an angry mob of youth numbering about 600.

The youth according to the report were pelting stones.

Around the same time, a local who was riding a motorbike got knocked down by a taxi cab along the main road that runs through the Ayanfuri town on which the locals had set car tires ablaze and were agitating.

Personnel of the Vanguard team, without regard for the stones being thrown at them, assisted to load the local into the taxi to be conveyed to the nearest health facility. His current state is also unknown.

The Vanguard team said some of the rioters were in possession of shotguns and fired them in the cause of the protest.

Meanwhile, a clash between Members of the Operation Vanguard team and some locals earlier in the day left two people wounded with one suffering a gun shot fired by the Operation Vanguard team in his leg.

One of the security team’s vehicles were also destroyed by the rioters in the process.

“Vanguard personnel who were called to reinforce the initial patrol team were attacked by the rioters when they got to the Y-Junction. Some of the locals advanced toward the reinforcement team wielding cutlasses and other weapons without regard for the warning shots the team fired. In their defense, the team fired two shots at the protesters from about a meter away injuring one of them. The casualty, who was shot in the leg was evacuated to the Perseus Mines Clinic for treatment. A second unconfirmed casualty was carried off by the rioters. However, the individual’s current state is unknown,” Operation Vanguard’s report said.