Editorial: Galamsey: IGP Yohuno’s promise is very refreshing

The Inspector General of Police (IGP), COP Christian Tetteh Yohuno, has, according to a myjoyonline.com report, declared an all-out war on illegal mining, also known as ‘galamsey’, because it poses a serious threat to national security and the environment.

Speaking at the Regional Police Commanders’ Conference in Accra recently, IGP Tetteh Yohuno revealed that armed criminals linked to illegal mining operations have carried out brutal attacks on innocent civilians, including forest guards, without justification. “This lawlessness must not be allowed to continue,” he said.

Given the escalating violence and environmental damage caused by illegal mining, Mr Yohunu stressed that urgent action was needed to combat the problem. “We are declaring war on illegal mining, and I expect every regional commander to take decisive action, to bring perpetrators to justice,” he said.

As we have always maintained in this column, illegal mining is an existential threat to us as a nation. The Chronicle is, therefore, happy that the IGP himself has noticed this occurrence and has declared war on the menace. Ghanaians have been engaging in galamsey ever since gold was discovered in the then Gold Coast, but the devastating form it has taken in recent years bothers us all.

Our rivers and forests are being carelessly destroyed by these illegal miners who are, as we have always been pointing out, sitting in our big towns and cities, but have hired young people to go into the bush with excavators to destroy the environment, in the name of digging for gold.

According to the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, last year alone, excavators worth GHS6.2billion were imported into the country. This, according to the minister, made it the third largest import into the country, within the period being referenced. Obviously people have taken advantage to bring these machines into the country because there are ready markets for them.

Unfortunately, despite all the efforts made by the previous governments to stop the menace, nothing concrete has been achieved because the illegal miners are so rich that they are able, in most of the cases, to use money to influence those pursuing them. As a matter of fact, there are strong suspicions out there that our security forces deployed to these mining enclaves to fight the illegal mining are sometimes influenced with money to compromise their work.

So obviously the elephant is in the room, but we all seem to be skirting around it – and this attitude will certainly not help the fight against the menace. The Chronicle, nevertheless, welcomes the bold stance of the IGP that he is going to fight it. We, however, think that though the police are in charge when it comes to internal security of the country, they must do so in collaboration with the other sister security agencies.

In view of this, IGP Yohuno will certainly need support of the Ghana Armed Forces, Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) to handle the situation. The leadership of these security personnel to be deployed to the mining areas must however be led by the police. This means the junior military officers who will be involved in the operation should take instructions from the senior police officers assigned to lead them. This is not the time for us to hear that the military have gone their way to unnecessarily harass the civilian population who may have nothing to do with the illegal mining.

When we expressed our opinion on the newly recruited water guards that are going to be deployed to police the water bodies, we suggested that their remunerations should match the work they are going to do on the ground. The state cannot afford to be paying them when the very water bodies they are supposed to protect are still being polluted by the illegal miners. That will mean they have been compromised and should be changed immediately.

The Chronicle thinks this should also apply to the regional police commanders. The IGP should not hesitate in reshuffling them if the respective regions they are heading are still dominated by galamsey. It is our contention that when all these strategies are implemented, it will help the country to bring the issue of illegal mining to the barest minimum.

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