Former Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission, Dr Anthony Aubynn, has identified human intervention as a major obstacle in the fight against illegal mining, also known as ‘galamsey’.
He explained that, individuals involved in illegal mining are often not punished due to their political affiliations.
“Human intervention is one of the factors hindering the fight of galamsey. It is an open secret that perpetrators are asked of their political background and if your political party is in power, you are left to go unpunished,” he said on Adom FM’s Burning Issues Monday.
Dr. Aubynn shared an instance where he and the Police arrested illegal miners, but they were released due to political connections.
According to him, this kind of intervention hinders the efforts to combat galamsey.
“During the operation Stop Galamsey, I personally went to arrest some illegal miners, and after the police had arrested them, they later came claiming to know them hence the need to release them. That’s why human intervention has become the problem.”
Dr Aubynn also mentioned that, relying solely on the military to address illegal mining is not a permanent solution.
He emphasized the need for a more effective and vigorously enforced system. Additionally, he highlighted the negative impact of military involvement, as some officers engage in extortion from illegal miners.
“The government realized the using the military is causing another section of problems where some military officers extort monies from the illegal miners so what we are saying is that the military approach cannot permanently fight illegal mining instead, we need a system that can be enforced vigorously,” he said.
Source: Ayisha Akua Ibrahim
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