Police/military task force to clamp down on galamsey operators
Four hundred security men are expected to be deployed to mining areas in three regions today to counter the activities of illegal miners, known as galamseyers.
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The action forms part of the government’s unrelenting fight against galamsey that has destroyed water bodies and degraded the environment.
The well-equipped security men are being deployed to the Ashanti, Western and Eastern regions to start patrolling mining areas.
First batch
The Director, Public Relations of the Ghana Armed Forces, Colonel Eric Aggrey-Quarshie, said the personnel constituted the first batch of the National Anti-Galamsey Task Force established by the government to enforce the ban on illegal mining.
He said although the task force would initially focus its attention on the three regions, it would extend its operations to other areas if it became necessary.
The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr John Peter Amewu; the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), Lieutenant General Obed Boamah Akwa, and the National Security Advisor, Brigadier General Emmanuel Okyere, have visited the team currently training at the Bundase Military Base.
Addressing the task force ahead of its deployment, Mr Amewu described mining on the country’s river bodies and along waterbeds as a treasonable act which would not be countenanced.
Ban on galamsey
“We have gone further to place a complete ban on mining in our river bodies and river beds. If you permit me, I’ll say it is treasonable. Mining in our river bodies or river banks is not going to happen any longer under the Presidency of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo,” he said.
President Akufo Addo has reiterated his government’s commitment to bring to an end the illegal mining menace that has caused destruction to water bodies and the environment, even if that will cause him the next elections.