What stopped you from arresting owners of the machines – Amaliba on burnt chanfans

The Director of Conflict Resolution at the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Abraham Amaliba has questioned why owners of the burnt galamsey machines were not arrested after the equipment were impounded

According to Abraham Amaliba, President Akufo-Addo knows the New Patriotic Party (NPP) kingpins involved in illegal mining activities yet appear not to act.

He further mentioned that some of the Ministers, his District Chief Executives (DCEs) and government appointees are neck-deep in galamsey activities but the President has refused to call them out by the president.

Abraham Amaliba referred to the comment by NPP Member of Parliament(MP), Dr. Nana Afriyie Ayew on why the NPP will not ban galamsey activities because it would go against them during the elections.

He however questioned why the owners of the burnt excavators and chanfans were not arrested by the soldiers who were deployed to these mining sites.

“I heard this morning that some chanfans and excavators have been burnt down at mining sites. The question is having impounded those galamsey machines, where are the people operating the galamsey machines? Where are they? Were the machines there without individuals? So how did you impound those machines but couldn’t arrest the owners of the machines? It tells you that, the people were given a tip-off to run so only the machines would be impounded.” He alleged.

Abraham Amaliba emphasized that the fight against galamsey would be simple if the government showed its commitment to fight it and also deal with appointees who are neck-deep in the activities.

This submission from Abraham Amaliba comes after reports stated that the soldiers who were deployed under the government’s “Operation Halt” initiative to fight against illegal small-scale mining destroyed 18 chanfans, 10 industrial water pumping machines, and one excavator in various illegal mining sites across Ghana.

The destruction formed part of the government’s measures to tackle the illicit small-scale mining menace.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had directed the Minister for Defence to deploy additional military forces to intensify the ongoing operation halt which aims to curb illegal mining activities.

The President also directed the Ministry of the Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation together with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to suspend with immediate effect the enforcement of L.I 2462 on mining in forest reserves.

This comes after a meeting with Organised Labour on Tuesday, October 8 after the latter had announced they would declare a nationwide strike on October 10 if the government fails to take action against illegal mining.