Scores of environmental experts in Ghana have stated explicitly that the government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo cannot succeed in the fight against illegal gold mining activities.
According to the environmental experts, the reason was because of government six-month ban imposition galamsey was not well coordinated and planned.
They expressed shock in the way and manner government rushed to place a ban on illegal miners from mining at prohibited places without taking into consideration the effective consultation of the chiefs, influential persons, opinion leaders, assembly members and youth in gold mining communities.
Many of these environmental experts who spoke to Today on condition yesterday reiterated that government cannot win the fight against illegal gold mining activities, since according to them, the methodologies and procedures adopted by the government in fighting the illicit practice were “ineffective and inimical.”
“How would government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) fight illegal mining activities which were going-on in the traditional communities without consulting the chiefs who have the traditional authority over these communities?,” these environmental experts quizzed.
They described the move by President Akufo-Akufo through the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr. John Peter Amewu, to issue a three-week ultimatum for all illegal miners to withdraw their equipment and leave their illegal mining sites as “needles.” In their view, that the three-week ultimatum should rather be spent by the central government to hold a consultative forum involving the chiefs in gold mining communities to seek their views on how to place the ban.
According to them, checks conducted within gold mining communities showed, among other things, that the chiefs and their elders who are custodians of the lands had not been widely consulted before the government moved in to impose the ban.
This disturbing trend, the environmental experts noted, was the reason why government was still struggling to flush out illegal gold miners from their mine sites. They revealed that foreign nationals and Ghanaian miners are still actively engaged in the illicit practice in Ghana despite measures put in place by the government to curb galamsey.
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