Some executives members of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) have been fingered for allegedly interfering with the Kobro Forest anti-galamsey raid.
Reports suggest that on Monday afternoon, a joint task force comprising the Ashanti South Police Command and Logist Group Company Limited apprehended four suspected illegal miners.
The raid led to the arrest of four individuals: two alleged kingpins and two labourers. Security forces also seized two excavators, and several other pieces of mining equipment were destroyed on-site.
However, their work was almost hindered after local political heavyweights stormed the site.
Reports by JoyNews suggest NDC Chairman for Jacobu, Jacob Bobbin, accompanied by the Amansie Central NADMO Coordinator and other party executives, stormed the scene demanding the release of the suspects, arguing that the arrested persons were party affiliates.
Operations Manager of Logist Group Company Limited, Seth Kofi Adjei, recounting the encounter, narrated, “We seized four machines operating illegally near the Oda River in Kobro Forest. As we prepared to move them, the NDC chairman for Jacobu arrived with his group and some galamseyers. They claimed to have brought both the machines and the illegal miners to the site and argued that we should not confiscate the equipment.”
“We are not conducting this operation on our own authority. It is in line with the government’s directive to end this menace, which is taking people’s lives, destroying our water bodies, and degrading our land,” he asserted.
“I call on the government to intervene and prevent political interference in the fight against galamsey. Without such action, this battle cannot be won.”
It will be recalled that President John Dramani Mahama, who has confessed that illegal mining, commonly known as galamsey, involves individuals across political and traditional structures.
According to John Mahama, he will not kid himself that his own party people are not involved in the galamsey menace.
President Mahama highlighted that the fight against the galamsey menace will be difficult but must continue.
Mahama stressed that operators often shift allegiance when governments change, allowing the practice to continue.
Speaking during a meeting with Organised Labour at the Jubilee House in Accra on Tuesday, March 17, President Mahama stated, “Illegal mining has eaten into the fabric of our society. And I must say that it is not only a menace to our society, but it has involved a circle of traditional rulers, political party appointees and everything”.
“Even when one party changes, those who were running some operation, who went to one party, will go to the next party and say, now that you have come, come and take over this operation and let’s share. We, too, will be getting small; this is what we are doing. And so I don’t kid myself that we don’t have our own people involved,” he stated.
President Mahama further touched on the work of the anti-illegal mining task force NAIMOS, describing it as challenging, especially in communities where resistance is strong.
He added, “And the work of the NAIMOS is not easy. They go to a community, and the chiefs, the youth and everybody come out and resist them. And so, I didn’t kid myself that we would be able to win that fight overnight. But we cannot relent, we must continue”.
“And it doesn’t help when we have a crisis in the cocoa industry. The low price that was paid to cocoa farmers made some of them give up their farms for gold mining,” he noted.
“We are hoping that it will stabilise with the new automatic mechanism we are coming up with so that farmers know that they are getting 70% of the price,” he said.
“One of the problems we have is we don’t have patrol boats, especially on our waterways, for nine months to continue to patrol the waterways,” he explained.
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