An illegal miner has boldly declared that no amount of destruction caused by the anti-galamsey task force will deter them from illegal mining.
The illegal miner made this declaration while his colleague was assembling new equipment to continue their illegal mining operation despite an earlier raid by anti-galamsey forces.
Speaking in a viral video, the illegal miner stated, “The soldiers have come to our sites and they have destroyed our machines, so we have gone for a new one. If you burn it ten times, we will buy new machines ten times.
Do you know the price? It is 9000, and within five days, we can buy a new one. Don’t worry yourself, the galamsey cannot be stopped. Tell Mahama to give us machines so that we can destroy the land well. We are destroying the land. Look, that is someone’s home.
The leaders, what have they done for us? This is not an excavator that we will say we don’t have the money to buy. Within five days, you will get the money to buy a new one”.
However, some Ghanaians have reacted to the video, saying, “Anyone who hasn’t done it before doesn’t know the amount of money they make sometimes. There are so many questions we need to ask ourselves: how much can we pay them if there are jobs for them? Which measures are we putting in place in case jobs are being created? And so on”.
“The government should come up with a plan that will help the illegal miners not to destroy the land and the water bodies, but it will help to improve the mining it self , because galamsey is unstoppable”, a netizen added.
Another Ghanaian wrote, “The security agencies & the gov’t don’t have the willingness to fight galamsey because if they did, a lot of strategic interventions would have been put in place, like passing laws to suit the purpose of the arrest of chiefs, land owners and elders of galamsey communities”.
“In your mind, you will be sitting in your city, thinking there is a big man sponsoring them. No, they are areas, boys doing their own thing. And it is the same in most mining communities, they can afford to hire those excavators and do whatever they want without the help of any big man”, one more Ghanaian noted.
One more netizen added, “If these people are serious in fighting this suicidal behaviour of galamsey, then they should as well put some controls on the importation of these machines into the country. Just as Mahama is willing to deal with shippers who’ll violate rules governing importation of excavators”.
Meanwhile, President John Dramani Mahama has announced that the National Security Council believes the galamsey fight can be won without a state of emergency.
According to John Mahama, the National Security Council has not advised him on a declaration of a state of emergency, and once they do, he will not hesitate to declare it.
Speaking during a stakeholder engagement on illegal mining in Accra, the President stated, “Yes, I have the power to do it. But the president acts not only on his authority but also on the advice of the National Security Council…as of now, the National Security Council believes that we can win the fight against galamsey without a state of emergency”.
The day they advise me otherwise — that now we need a state of emergency — I will not hesitate in declaring it,” he added.
Mahama added, “We still believe we have the power to win this fight”.
Also, the Director of Operations of the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS), Col. Dominic Buah, has said illegal miners are the prime enemies of the state.
He said, “Mr. President, with your permission, I would like to send this warning to illegal miners, their assigns, and financiers. They are the first or prime enemies of the state, and they will be dealt with as such. There will be no room for them to escape or to hide. NAIMOS will smoke them out very soon; there is no resting place for them,” Col. Buah said.
Col. Buah added, “They should get ready and be assured that very soon our waters will turn blue and our forests will turn green. We have already trained over 400 troops who are the first batch deployed or are under deployment to sensitive areas. We will continue to deploy more so that we will all go to bed knowing that NAIMOS is firmly on the ground and illegal mining will be a thing of the past.”
“All illegal miners, galamseyers, and financiers, beware. NAIMOS is closer to your bases, and there will be no hiding place for you”, he added.
Additionally, Dominic Ayine, the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, has revealed that the government will repeal the infamous Legislative Instrument (LI) 2462, which allows mining in forest reserves.
According to the Attorney General, LI 2505 will be laid in Parliament to repeal infamous LI 2462.
Speaking during the stakeholder engagement on illegal mining assembled by President John Dramani Mahama in Accra on Friday, October 3, Dr Ayine stated, “We have prepared an instrument that is LI 2505 in my office, and that will be laid in Parliament on the 14th of October”.
“The Minister and I have agreed that on the 14th of October, when Parliament resumes, we will lay that instrument to revoke the famous LI 2462,” he added.
Watch the video below:
“If you destroy it ten times, we will buy it ten times. You can never stop galamsey”
— SIKAOFFICIAL🦍 (@SIKAOFFICIAL1) October 6, 2025
—Illegal miner boldly declares whilst assembling new equipments to continue an illegal mining operation despite an earlier raid by anti-galamsey forces. pic.twitter.com/YoNRvDnRMF