The District Chief Executive (DCE) of Ellembelle, Kwasi Bonzoh, says he has taken the fight against illegal mining in his district seriously.
He has led 18 anti-galamsey exercises since his appointment in 2017.
According to him, his quest to end the menace is due to the negative impact the canker has caused in his district.
Mr Kwasi Bonzoh who was speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, said the fight has not been easy.
According to him, some of those involved are very “well-connected.”
“The issue of galamsey is now a very complex socio-economic and now politicised which if we don’t come together and find a concerted effort, it will swallow all of us. It is quite simplistic for people to say Mr President sack this MCE or the other because galamsey is going on in their district.
“Why do I say so? Since I became DCE in my district, I have become a victim of this call. I have done 18 anti-galamsey operations in my district. I have led several arrests of the financiers and the boys, chiefs and several actors but one thing I have come to know is that the actors are so powerful and so well connected,” he said.
The DCE added that once these suspects are arrested, influential people, as well as politicians and religious leaders, begin to call to plead for their discharge.
“If you come to my district, probably next to the big mining company there, galamseyers are the ones who are ‘very liquid’ so if you arrest one galamseyer and is in police custody, and they know that you are the DCE that led the arrest, the number of calls that you will receive transcends political lines.
“NPP people will call you, NDC people will call you, influential people in the society, chiefs will call you, clergy, imams and everybody calls you speaking on behalf of the arrested galamseyer.”