The Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) is calling for a broader legal crackdown on illegal mining networks by prosecuting traditional authorities, landowners, and community members who enable or shield galamsey operations.
Speaking on Morning Starr with Naa Dedei Tettey on Tuesday, October 7, the Programme Manager for Security Sector Governance at CDD-Ghana, Paul Nana Kwabena Aborampah Mensah, said the country’s anti-galamsey fight is being undermined by local complicity.
According to him, what began as isolated acts of illegal mining has now evolved into a community-supported enterprise, where residents, chiefs, and local officials all have vested interests.
“Now the local people themselves are protecting the galamsey. And they have joined the fray,” he said.
“So that’s why I’m saying that if you say we are going to have a collaboration from the local people to fight galamsey. We are going to fail. Because now they themselves are part of it.”
Mr. Aborampah-Mensah argued that enforcement must move beyond arresting those physically engaged in mining and instead target those who grant access to land or provide logistical and moral support.
He explained that under Ghanaian law, all natural resources belong to the state, not the individual, and therefore landowners who allocate portions of their land for illegal mining must also be held accountable.
“So if you are a farmer and you say because it’s my land I’m giving out to galamsey-that resource in the land is not for you, that’s the law in the country,” he stressed.
Mr. Aborampah-Mensah insisted that an “all-encompassing enforcement regime” must include everyone in the chain — from financiers and chiefs to those protecting illegal miners with weapons.
“As a farmer, as a Abusuapanin or whoever you are, you think the land where you have been farming is yours and therefore you have the authority without the backing of the state to give it out, you are part of the enforcement. So it should be a comprehensive enough to be able to deal with the situation,” he added.
Source: Starrfm.com.gh
