Use of military to fight galamsey ‘a bad decision’

A communicator of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has described as ‘bad’ the decision to send armed military personnel to fight illegal mining in the country, popularly known as Galamsey.
The joint military and police team was dispatched as another major step in the fight against the illegal activity that has become of great concern to many Ghanaians.
‘Operation Vanguard’ as they are known have been accused of several atrocities including the alleged shooting to death of an illegal miner at Wawase, an Obuasi suburb.
Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Operation Vanguard, Major Gariba Pabi however denied the involvement of the taskforce in the death of the illegal miner.
The taskforce was also accused of setting ablaze several excavators in the Eastern Region.
The latest accusation has been their alleged involvement in the death of four illegal miners at a location near Akyem Kwabeng. Their deaths sparked anger among the galamseyers and several town folks.
Reacting to this on Adom FM’s Morning Show, ‘Dwaso Nsem’ Monday, Sammy Gyamfi of the NDC said he has always held the belief that dispatching a joint Military and Police personnel to fight the canker was a ‘bad decision’.
“Using soldiers to fight galamsey is a bad decision…a very bad decision which was undertaken by the government…,” he said.
Sammy Gyamfi explained further that the military is now full of vengeance against the galamseyers following the lynching of Major Maxwell Mahama at Denkyira Obuasi who had been dispatched to fight galamsey.
“We are living in an era when some civilians have killed a military man because of galamsey and why should we use soldiers full of vengeance to fight the same people involved in same business?,” he queried.
This decision, he said is akin to ‘using lawlessness to enforce the law’.
Sammy Gyamfi further called on the government to set up a credible team which would consist of security experts and criminologists to investigate the death of the four miners.