The Lower Volta Association of Small-Scale Miners/ Farmers has appealed to President John Dramani Mahama to intervene and resolve the impasse between the association and NAIMOS over the illegal destruction of their mining equipment.
The group, numbering over 3,500 along the lower Volta, said their livelihoods depended on their small-scale mining and farming activities, hence the call for the immediate intervention by the President to address the incident which occurred on October 28, 2026.
The group made the appeal through its leader, Godwin Ogah Awudi, at a press briefing at Volivo, near Battor, last Monday.
Some of the communities along the lower Volta include Domeliam, Tefle, Battor, Mepe, Aveyime, Devime, Avakpo, Volivo, Kewumi, Atabui and Abuvienya.
According to the association, it had been in existence for some time now and, in response to the government's call to end illegal mining, the association had been operating and regulating its members in compliance with the Volta River Authority (VRA), Water Resources, Environmental Protection Authority and Minerals Commission directives until recently, when National Security officials decided to engage them.
Destruction of equipment
Mr Awudi said recently, they had an engagement with their respective districts on their operations and in the process, they realised that people in uniform started vandalising and destroying their equipment, contrary to the discussion they had with the National Security officials and the monitoring team that came for reconnaissance data collection.
Appeal
Mr Awudi explained that they had been operating on the guidelines of the VRA and the contractor on the Lower Volta “until recently, when NAIMOS decided to work on the blind side of the National Security to destroy our equipment".
Some of the destroyed equipment of the group.
He said NAIMOS destroyed their changfan equipment at Tefle, Sogakope, Mepe and Battor, among other areas in the Lower Volta.
Mr Awudi said the members' livelihoods for many years depended on dredging, clearing of weeds as well as collection of oyster shells to take care of their dependents, and added that, "we don't have any other means of survival as it stands now".
He said they had been into fishing, farming and dredging in their various communities on the lower Volta for 20 to 30 years now, and if VRA had given part of the lower Volta to a contractor, a concession should be given to them to continue their work for survival.
"We are appealing to the government to regulate and regularise our operation by forming a coordinated task force comprising the Environmental Protection Authority, Minerals Commission and VRA to regularise our activities for us to have a ceded concession to pay our taxes and levies to government while we also work to feed our families", he appealed.
