President of the Concerned Small-Scale Miners Association of Ghana, Michael Kojo Peprah has stated that the burning of excavators is targeted at pushing some miners out of business.
The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources decided to burn down excavators and equipment seized by security operatives as a measure to curb illegal mining in the country.
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However, Michael Kojo Peprah believes that there is an ulterior motive behind this move. According to him, the move in the first place is an illegality.
Speaking to Happy FM’s Don Prah on the ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ show, he stated: “With what is going on, there are a lot of questions to be asked and there are a lot of answers that we need to demand. At the end of the day, if we don’t follow the right procedure then it becomes a problem. The Mining Act states clearly on what should be done to excavators of galamseyers. It states clearly that we must confiscate those excavators to the state. This is because at the time you confiscate the equipment, you wouldn’t be able to tell if the person is an illegal miner or not. There are a lot of issues with this operation going on.
As and when things happen, we will let Ghanaians understand that whatever is going is targeted at some people. At the end of the day we speak out and let the truth be unveiled”.
On Friday, April 30th, 2021, Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul stated that all the seized galamsey equipment including excavators will be destroyed on site by the military officers deployed to the galamsey areas.
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“We are not seizing any equipment, no equipment will be returned home, they will all be destroyed on site. No excavator, nothing will come back home,” the Minister said at a press conference.
His statement followed President Akufo-Addo’s order for the deployment of about 200 soldiers to mining areas to clamp down on activities by illegal miners.
By: Alberta Dorcas N D Armah
