Of Galamsey Fight And Deployment Of Security Personnel

Yes, the galamsey battle is not over. There are still some recalcitrant galamseyers out there destroying our water bodies and environment with their illegal prospecting of gold.

We are also aware that these recalcitrant galamseyers have changed tactics and are still perpetuating their criminal activities under the cover of darkness.

But that is no reason for us to applaud our efforts so far targeted at ensuring that galamsey is totally uprooted in the country. We at Today are very confident that our efforts at tackling galamsey will not be in vain. And looking at how the menace is being tackled from all fronts, we have no reason to doubt that we shall be successful.

That is why we see as refreshing the latest phase which involves the deployment of four hundred security personnel comprising soldiers from the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) and policemen from the Ghana Police Service (GPS)] to the Western, Ashanti and Eastern Regions with the mandate to fight against illegal mining.

In the opinion of Today, the latest action taken by the government is the most profound in the country’s fight against galamsey.

More importantly, it also speaks volumes of the fact that government is not relenting in its fight against the illegal mining phenomenon.

In essence, it makes it clear to those intractable galamseyers that the country will not rest until they are flushed out completely.

We want to believe that these 400 security personnel who are out there fighting against galamsey under the code name: “Vanguard Operation,” have trained adequately enough for the task ahead. We also want to believe that they will be professional in carrying out the task assigned to them.

Today is making the above statements because of the Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul’s warning to the galamseyers not to dare the National Anti-Galamsey Task force.

According to him, daring members of the anti-galamsey task force will amount to doing so at their peril.

This aside, the defence minister also urged members of the task force to be professional in the discharge of their mandate, and stressed that where threatened they should apply minimum force and not the usual brute force that our security agencies met out to suspects and criminals.

Inasmuch as we all want to see an end to galamsey, care should be taken so it does not become a guerrilla warfare or turned into a bloodbath affair.

This is where the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr. John Peter Amewu’s, assurance that the anti-galamsey task force will not attack illegal miners is refreshing.

“This is a directive with about seven ministerial committees put together to make sure that once and for all we deal with this issue. The forces that you see today will not go and beat up civilians or molest communities. There are some miners still on the water bodies so they are going to enforce the laws.

In fact, this should not be a motivating factor for galamseyers to continue with their illegal activities. The fact still remains that the law will be applied on them when they are caught.