Yes,It is an established and a known fact that John Owusu , the cooperate Affairs Director of Anglo gold Ashanti died as a result of a car running over him at one of their concession. what Happened ?
Series of radio interviews by the small scale miners and the public relations department of the company indicate that there were some of the small scale miners on their concession as well as some of the staff of the company .
Now , John Owusu was not the only person representing the company. There were other people including the head of security and other private security personnel hired to protect the mine by the company as well as police personnel. Oh before I forget, there was a water Canon belonging to the police service .
Let me pause and ask two questions, just two:
1.What is the use of the police water Canon and its significance at that point in time ? 2.What was the use of the cutlasses at that point by the small scale miners?
Because we are told they had the biggest cutlasses known as "dopei "at their disposal . Please note the questions down, we will revisit them.
According to Rufuis, the police officer in charge ordered that some of the small scale miners be arrested by his men.oh sorry, I didn't tell you who Rufuis is. He is the pen man for the small scale miners . Yes their Secretary.
Let's ask and answer this question before we proceed .
Where was Rufuis at that time ?
According to the pen man, he, together with the big wings of the small scale miners were called by God knows who, that his men were at the AGA concession and because talks were already underway to bring peace for them to work again, they were to withdraw their men from the concession till they are given a different concession to work on by AGA.
Now you know where Rufuis and the Big men were . They were going to stop their boys .
Let me give u a brief overview of what really happened before things got here.
The small scale miners have over the years written letters to the miners(AGA) to get them a place to also mine.
According to AGA , they don't have that locus to do that .Even their ceded lands must be given to the minerals commission who can later give to any registered company to work on.
The small scale miners also goes with the adage "nea )te 3po ano didi 3po mu" literally meaning he who resides by the sea eats from it. So as they live on a rich land they must eat from it.
I guess you know the bone of contention now? "Give us a place to work". The cry of the small scale miners. "The law must work," the stand of the company(AGA)
Back to the issue. What were the small scale miners doing on the concession? How did they enter? What were they doing?
Let me tell you. The place is believed to be rich in gold so definitely they were there to fetch some. How they went there is a mystery, I can't tell.
AGA noticed this (the presence of the boys on their concession )so the police must drive them out. As prevention is better than cure, the boys also attacked the police.
I am told that they (small scale miners) in their numbers rushed on the police and the staff present so the police officers asked that everyone run for his/her life.
Don't look for the car you came in with, just sit in any of them and leave. I think those were the words of the officer.
Now they all left the scene. Where is Big John? He was ran over by one of the Toyota Hilux. How? The car was reversing and it ran over him.How? Everybody was rushing to be on the vehicle so we don't know how. I see. But it is a fact that he was run over by a car which was reversing because the small scale miners wanted to attack them with cutlasses and stones.
Safety . ...AGA is one of the companies that jokes not with safety. I remember my first time in the mines. "Please, reverse parking", the security man said to me which I obliged . So where was the safety king as at the time they parked their cars? is it the term "gentility outside, home cry stuff?"
Now John is rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead. Don't you think the police started spraying them with their water in the canon ? Don't u think the small scale miners were chasing them with their cutlasses ?
One of these groups sparked the confusion leading to John's death . So his own company car ran over him and he died.
He was running because he feared to die from cutlass wounds.
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