Lack of prosecution is the missing link in the fight against illegal small scale mining activities (Galamsey), a Minerals Analyst, Gideon Ofosu-Peasah has said.
For him, in order to send a deterring signal to the criminals who are engaged in the act, the state must prosecute some of the perpetrators and jail them.
Unless that is done, he said, there will be no motivation for those engaged in the activity to stop.
Speaking on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday October 8, Mr Ofosu-Peasah said “grab some big fishes in there and prosecute them to send the signal. Prosecute them while you implement all the measures against galamsey.”
He stressed ” the lack of prosecution is the missing link in the fight against galamsey.
For his part, the Dean of Institute of Local Government Studies Dr Fredrick Agyarko Oduro proposed to the government to place a ban on all mining activities for a while in order to rescue the environment from Galamsey.
He said even if the ban will take one hundred years for the the country to recover the environment, it should be done.
Also speaking on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday October 8, he indicated that the country has been mining for centuries yet with little to show for.
He was commenting on the meeting President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo held with the National House of Chiefs in Kmasii on Wednesday October 5 in the issue of Galamsey.
“The first step is let’s put a ban on mining, if it will take 100 years that is fine because none of the solutions has worked,” he said.
He added “even the so-called legal mining what have we achieved from it?”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana