Mining Consultant Ing. Wisdom Edem Gomashie has raised concerns over the continued arrests of young individuals involved in illegal mining, locally known as galamsey, under the new administration of President John Dramani Mahama.
His concerns come in the wake of rising arrests of youth engaged in galamsey, despite earlier promises by President Mahama during the 2024 election campaign to shift the focus away from arresting these young individuals.
At the time, then-candidate Mahama had strongly criticized the previous administration for failing to address the root causes of illegal mining and pledged a new approach.
He promised that under his leadership, enforcement would target the powerful figures allegedly behind the operations not the youth often driven to galamsey out of economic desperation.
However, in an interview on Morning Starr with Naa Dedei Tettey, Ing. Gomashie expressed disappointment that the government’s actions appear inconsistent with its earlier rhetoric.
He acknowledged the efforts of the Lands Ministry in introducing some measures to tackle the problem but argued that these would be insufficient without addressing the power dynamics and networks enabling illegal mining.
Ing. Gomashie questioned the government’s approach to tackling the menace particularly the continued arrest of young people involved in the activity.
He said, “I’m taking the first point about him indicating that he didn’t promise to fight illegal mining in just four months. We all indicate that prior to the 2024 elections, the outgone administration had its own fair share of the bashing for not living up to certain expectations, regardless of what they put in place. And we even had a point whereby the organized labor came up very strongly against the previous government, came up with to sanction some activities. One, to revoke the L.I 2462, we had the opposition then. Our revered president now, then in opposition, indicated that when he’s voted into office, he’s going to ensure that the young, young, young boys that are normally being arrested at the galamsey sites and go, they are not the ones to be chased. And there are some supposed MCEs, MPs, Ministers, and big guys who are behind them.”
He added, “In fact, they had a gamut of solutions, which seems so clear. In fact, you monitor some speeches by some actors who are now currently ministers. That even indicated that this menace will be stopped first thing when government changes. Now, when you look at the narrative now, I would say the Lands Ministry is trying their best to put some measures in place. But one, we are still seeing the young people being arrested. We are still seeing those who were told that they are just there to get some food, being arrested. So the question is, is it not that the big guys are behind them doing the same thing, or they are behind, but the narrative have changed? We need to be very, I mean, comprehensive and open on this matter.”
