[ 2016-10-23 ]

Galamsey impunity driven by complicity of traditional leaders
Senior journalist, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Jr.,
says small-scale miners popularly known as
Galamsey operators delight in acts of impunity
because they are backed by some influential
personalities in the country.

He says these personalities which according to him
include political party officials, traditional
leaders, state agencies, police and military
elements have found nothing wrong with acts
perpetrated by the miners who hail from all parts
of Ghana.

Speaking on the Joy FM/MultiTV’s news analysis
programme, Newsfile on Saturday, the Managing
Editor of the Daily Crusading Guide newspaper
said, “It’s about time the President sits
up…or we would end up forming a rebel group to
rampage this country in the name of galamsey.”

Some 4,000 illegal miners operating in Obuasi in
the Ashanti Region went on a rampage Wednesday
after a deadline served them by the Minerals
Commission to vacate the area which is a
concession of Anglogold Ashanti (AGA) elapsed.

Chanting “No Galamsey, No Vote,” the galamsey
operators destroyed key equipment of AGA,
properties of the Obuasi Municipal Assembly and
offices of some political parties namely the
governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), New
Patriotic Party (NPP), and the Progressive
People’s Party (PPP).

Things such as windows were shattered, TV
decoders, billboards, plastic chairs and some
other valuable properties were vandalized.

Per the quit order given them, the illegal miners
were to vacate the area a forthright ago or risk
being forced out of the area by a Task Force made
up of the Movement Committee.

Some of the miners who spoke to Joy News disclosed
their action on Wednesday was to demonstrate their
unwillingness to leave the area. They said all
that they want is a chance to make a living from
mining, adding they are unhappy with the treatment
meted to them by state officials.

Kweku Baako believes illegal miners in the country
would not be acting with impunity in the face of
the law if state agencies invested with
authorities would apply the law without fear or
favor.

Reacting to the decision by the Minerals
Commission to flush out the illegal miners out of
the area in the coming days, he said that would
help improve the situation in Obuasi “If they
will match their words with deeds and to be blunt
with it.”

Law lecturer at the Central University College Law
School, Yaw Oppong said the mayhem visited on the
community by the illegal miners is a sign that
provisions in the Minerals and Mining Act 2006
have to be implemented.

He said the behavior of the miners was
regrettable, adding the situation would not have
occurred had the Minerals Commission implemented
the portion of the Act that says license should be
given to Ghanaian small-scale miners.

He urged the miners to resort to court if they are
dissatisfied with the way government is spending
revenue generated from the sector.

Source - Joyfm

... go Back