Senior journalist, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Jr., says operations of small scale miners popularly known as Galamsey are sponsored by some influential personalities in the country.
He says these individuals which according to him include political party officials, traditional leaders, state agencies, police and military elements are fueling acts of impunity perpetuated by small-scale miners.
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 disclosed their action on Wednesday was to demonstrate their unwillingness to leave the area.
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 implement 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.
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