Burning of mining excavators, bulldozers senseless – Baba Jamal

Former Member of Parliament for Akwatia, Baba Jamal has said the burning of excavators and bulldozers by the anti-galamsey taskforce set by President Nana Akufo-Addo to stop galamsey activities in the country doesn’t make sense.
The government commissioned the Operation Vanguard two weeks ago to scale up the fight against relentless and sometimes armed illegal miners dotted around mineral-rich sites in the Ashanti, Eastern, and Western regions.
The anti galamsey taskforce were accused of burning some mining tools belonging to Suronnim mining company a sub-contractor for Extra gold  at Kwabeng Banso in the Eastern Region.
The owner of the machine Fuseni Abdullah said the order by government telling illegal miners and galamseyers to halt their activities did not include those doing large scale mining.
But speaking on the matter, Baba Jamal lambasted the current administration for such move since he believes burning of mining equipment is not the way forward to halt the illegal miners.
He further stressed that, most of the illegal miners haven’t chanced upon formal education hence the need for the government to take cautious measures to check them than deploying security forces to threaten their lives.
“What is the sense of burning excavators and bulldozers whiles we can give to the district assembly to work? Galamsey didn’t start today. There are some people who were born into it. What is the sense in that? It is cruelty…” he said on Accra based Neat FM.
“They are Ghanaians. Most of them didn’t go to school, they can’t farm. So we need to find measures towards that. But if they instruct the soldiers to kill them, then something else might happen in this country… It is not because we support the galamsey…” he added.
Nevertheless, the former Member of Parliament urged the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia administration to focus on those mining on the water bodies and provide licence to the small scale miners through legitimate procedures with regards to additional permits from various district assemblies.
The traditional authorities, he added have a major role to play if the government wants to eliminate the illegal mining across the country.
“I know those mining in the waters don’t have license. Let’s pay attention to them. And those who work on the land without license should be checked. If they don’t have a license how would they get it?  We should give ourselves a year. For the license to be given, the District Assemblies should give a permit. The license shouldn’t be given from Accra.
“The chief should also be given a quota of the license fees. The local authorities should report those who work without permits. Focusing solely on the taskforce won’t help…” he maintained.