The Ghana Association of Small Scale Miners has maintained that Ghana’s inability to win the fight against illegal small scale mining popularly known as ‘galamsey’, is due to personal interests by some persons in authority.
In an interview with Alfred Ocansey on 3FM Sunrise, Secretary of the Association, Godwin Armah described the return of the Chinese Galamsey Queen Aisha Huang to engage in illegal gold mining and trade as a blatant security breach.
He wants the laws of the country to be seriously applied to punish all the culprits in this matter.
“We are not able to fight galamsey because of so many vested interests. There are now Chinese people doing galamsey even in areas like forest reserves that Ghanaians are not even allowed to enter. Sometimes they are arrested and we don’t know what happens and they come back” Armah said.
Ghana card: "Granted that she (Aisha Huang) had criminal intent, she did not succeed in changing the name."
Head of Corporate Affairs at the NIA, Dr. Abdul Ganiyu answers the question on Aisha Huang acquiring a Ghana card during her stay in Ghana #3FMSunrise pic.twitter.com/AfAmT6Oqb1
— Urban Lifestyle Radio? (@3fm927) September 7, 2022
He recalled that the Ghana Small Scale Miners Association’s anti-galamsey task force arrested some Chinese illegal miners around 2017 at Kutukrom area in the Western Region and handed them to the police but this may, the culprits were found back at the site. This is clearly an indication that our security as a country is not in good shape and more must be done about it.
“We have our laws and every country has its own laws and regulations. The fact that you are having an investment or you are dealing with another government does not give them the right to infringe on our laws. The law is the law and we should let it bite no matter what we are getting from that country, its citizens must not be left off the hook when they engage in illegality” Mr. Armah iterated
He emphasised that Ghana has strong laws which when enforced, nobody will come from elsewhere to do whatever pleases him or her because Ghana has expectations of that person’s country of origin.
The association noted that there are a lot of Chinese people and companies that are law abiding but the issue of galamsey fight must not be treated lightly because there are so many vested interests that make the fight difficult.
[Cartoon] Return of galamsey queen under strict anti terrorism border security/ digitalization!#3NewsGH pic.twitter.com/wGc0dLENn8
— #TV3@25 (@tv3_ghana) September 7, 2022
“They don’t respect our laws because we have allowed that to happen. They can mine and degrade, or use anything to destroy our land and go with it. Our security institutions should be up and doing and ensure that we are protected” he further stated
Aisha Huang’s coming back into Ghana to repeat the same crime for which she was deported in 2018 is a clear indication that she has no regard for our laws. We have so many laws in our books therefore if enforcement becomes an issue then clearly we are not serious as a nation.
By Samuel Afriyie Owusu|3news.com|Ghana