The Small-Scale Miners Association and OccupyGhana, have kicked against a proposal for the burning of excavators and other equipment seized from illegal miners.
Again, the group says the failure of the security agencies to bring persons arrested for indulging in illegal mining (galamsey) to face the law undermines the whole exercise of fighting the menace.
The Minister for Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, Dr. Kwaku Afriyie, proposed the burning of excavators seized from illegal miners as a deterrent to others engaged in the menace but according to OccupyGhana, the Minerals and Mining Act provides adequate sanctions, including fines and terms of imprisonment for infractions of the law, and is specific “that equipment used in any of these offenses is required to be first seized and kept in police custody. Then, when the person using the equipment for the illegal mining activity is convicted, the court will order the forfeiture of the equipment to the state. Then the Minister has 60 days within which to allocate the equipment to a state institution. There is absolutely no legal room for simply touching the equipment. It is illegal and must stop forthwith. “
Pressure group OccupyGhana said “We think that all the efforts to end illegal mining will not achieve anything until we resolve to simply enforce the law. If the security agencies make arrests and the law is not applied, it weakens their resolve and says to all that we are not serious about ending this menace. “
General Secretary of the Small-Scale Miners Association, Godwin Armah has also said the proposal is unlawful.
According to him, “Concerning the burning of excavators, if you look at the amendments that were made to the Minerals and Mining Act, it shows very clearly how when someone engages in illegal mining, the state goes through the law court to find a way of disposing of the excavators involved in the act of illegal mining. So if we want to burn them or the same state that has put the laws in place to ensure that there is a rule of law, turns around to say excavators should be burnt because we are having an issue with illegal mining, then what is the use of these laws?”
But the President of the National House of Chiefs, Ogyeahohoo Yaw Gyebi II, has declared his support for the burning of excavators by the military in the fight against illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.
The Paramount Chief of Sefwi Anhwiaso Traditional Area and President of Western Regional House of Chiefs want the approach by the government in the fight against illegal miners to be firm and inflexible to deter others.
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com/Kofi Atakora
