Over fifteen armed men claiming to be national security operatives stormed the Bekwai District office of the Forestry Commission in the Ashanti region, locking up the premises and preventing staff from carrying out their duties.

The men, wielding pump-action guns and other implements, reportedly threatened the on-site security personnel, forcibly drove out the staff, and locked the offices with their own padlocks.

Eyewitnesses and Commission insiders say the group had earlier issued threats in protest against what they described as “wanton arrests and impounding of equipment” belonging to illegal miners operating in the Oda River Forest Reserve.

The Forestry Commission has been under increasing threats following its recent operations against illegal mining camps in the reserve.

However, sources within National Security, in a call to journalist Erastus Asare Donkor, have distanced themselves from the group, stating categorically that the men are not recognised operatives.

It took the swift intervention of the police to reopen the offices. The armed men were later escorted to the Municipal Chief Executive’s office in Bekwai for further questioning.