President John Dramani Mahama has appealed to Chiefs and traditional authorities across the country to support the government’s efforts to combat illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.
According to Mahama, enforcement measures must be accompanied by the creation of alternative livelihood opportunities for affected communities.
Mahama stressed that the collaboration of chiefs was critical to the success of the campaign, looking at their close relationship with residents and their influence in traditional areas where galamsey persists.
President Mahama further called for stronger collaboration between the government, traditional authorities and security agencies to address Ghana’s illegal mining menace.
Speaking during a courtesy visit by the Western North Regional House of Chiefs to the Jubilee House, Mahama stated, “We need the help of our chiefs in the fight against galamsey because you live in the community with the people, and sometimes NAIMOS is doing a good job, but sometimes we go into some communities and the youth and the traditional authorities, and everybody fight back at NAIMOS.
“There are incidents where the soldiers have had to discharge firearms, which resulted in a few deaths. We want to avoid that, and so if we can get the collaboration of our chiefs to help in the fight against illegal mining, especially in our forest reserves and in our water bodies.”
In related news, Mahama has dismissed claims that he promised Ghanaians to declare a state of emergency to tackle illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.
Speaking during a town hall meeting with the Ghanaian community in the Tri-State Area of the United States of America with Ghanaians in New York on Friday, September 25, President Mahama stressed that he never announced plans to invoke a state of emergency.
According to John Mahama, he said the use of a state of emergency should be a measure to be used only as a last resort.
Mahama claimed that the state of emergency is not useful at the moment because galamsey takes place across 10 regions of the country.
President Mahama stated, “They said I said a state of emergency. I never ever said that. I never said I’d declare a state of emergency, but states of emergency are useful; you declare them as a last resort.
If you declare a state of emergency, you normally declare it in an isolated area, and you deal with the issue. You concentrate all your energy there and deal with the issue. And you finish it, and you lift the state of emergency. They are very temporary”.
“Now, what people don’t understand is that galamsey is in 10 regions of Ghana. You declare a state of emergency; where are you going to declare the state of emergency?”
He further argued, “ That 48-hour rule doesn’t apply when there’s a state of emergency. And so the point is, we still have that power, but we must exercise it as a last resort”.
“We have forest reserves that have had incursions into them. And so what we’ve done is we’ve concentrated on the forest reserves.
“Nine of those forest reserves were considered red zones because of the degree of incursion into the forest reserves and the fact that those in those forest reserves were armed, and the forest guards could not go into the reserve for fear of their lives. Today, in those nine forest reserves, the army has cleared all the people out of them,” he added.
@ghnow_ Hon. Frank Annoh-Dompreh has arrived at the Accra High Court for the bail hearing of Chairman Wontumi. #GHNow #fyp ♬ original sound – Abama_studios🎥
@ghnow_ Justice Srem-Sai has departed the Accra High Court after the judge adjourned the bail application hearing of Chairman Wontumi. #GHNow #fyp ♬ original sound – MY WORSHIP CORNER. 🇬🇭
