Convener of the Coalition Against Illegal Mining, Ing. Kenneth Ashigbey, says the fight against illegal mining, or galamsey, is being hindered by a lack of prosecutions.
He made the remarks during an interview on The Pulse on JoyNews on Wednesday, January 7.
“One challenge that we have faced is the lack of prosecution. We are not seeing convictions and all of that,” Ing. Ashigbey said.
He called for a collaborative framework involving the Attorney General, the Inspector General of Police, the Chief Justice, and the President to ensure effective prosecutions and convictions of those involved in illegal mining.
Ing. Ashigbey also emphasised the need to address the root causes of galamsey, particularly the kingpins who orchestrate large-scale operations.
“Then you remember in 2024, the President, when he was a candidate, had talked about, rightly so, that the root cause of this is the kingpins. Unfortunately, we are not seeing the dealing with the kingpins,” he said.
He urged the president to work closely with his ministers to tackle these key issues.
“One of the things we want to see is how the President, working together with his ministers and all, will deal with the kingpins who are involved in galamsey,” he added.
Ing. Ashigbey questioned the status of several high-profile investigations.
“What is happening to the Akonta Mining case? What is happening to that? We have Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s report that is replete with a lot of politically exposed persons who are involved in it. What is happening to the two that the president asked the attorney general to get EOCO to investigate? He questioned, “We are not seeing that. That should be done; that is something we need to do,” he said.
He also highlighted the need for accountability at the local government level, particularly among Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MCEs and DCEs).
“Very importantly, we should not have MCEs and DCEs sitting in their various communities where they are head of the security committee and the mining communities and expecting the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources to be dispatching NAIMOS to come into their communities. The president has said that one of their KPIs is galamsey, but we are not seeing that happening. It is important that we hold these DCEs and MCEs to account,” Ing. Ashigbey said.
He warned that local leaders who fail to control galamsey in their areas may be either incompetent or complicit in illegal activities.
“Anybody who has galamsey happening in his community is either too incompetent to represent the President, or he himself is complicit in the illegality that is happening. His Excellency should hold them also accountable,” he concluded.
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