Coalition & Occupy Ghana damn govt for failure to enforce mining law

The Media Coalition Against Galamsey and OccupyGhana have expressed disappointment at the announcement by the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, that hundreds of excavators seized from galamsey operators have disappeared from the premises of some assemblies.

They said the minister’s statement epitomised how the authorities had failed to enforce the law against illegal mining.

Speaking with an Accra-based radio station recently, the minister said though the excavators were seized and taken to the district assemblies, the machines disappeared later from the premises of the assemblies.

But a joint press statement issued by the two civil society groups in Accra yesterday said, “Our deep concern at this [Minister’s] revelation stems from the fact that the authorities have simply once again failed to follow and enforce the law.”

It indicated that although the 2006 Minerals and Mining Act made provisions and guidelines as to how to handle illegal miners, authorities did not follow the law.

“The inability of the government to enforce the law, from the facts as we know them, is only matched by the brazenness of the illegal miners,” it stated.

The questions

The groups asked the government to explain to Ghanaians whether the persons from whom the equipment was allegedly seized were also arrested because it was illegal for anyone to erect equipment for the purpose of mining without being the holder of either a mining lease or a small-scale mining licence.

“If that did not happen, the government should explain why it did not happen, or were the illegal miners also allowed to disappear just like the equipment?” the statement asked.

It further explained that the 2006 Minerals and Mining Act provided that upon the arrest of illegal miners, the equipment they were using “shall, regardless of the ownership be seized and kept in the custody of the police.”

It, therefore, asked the government to explain to Ghanaians why the equipment allegedly seized was kept with district assemblies and not the police.

“Was this deliberate? Was this to make it very easy for the equipment to simply ‘disappear’? Did anyone take an inventory of the seized equipment and if so, where is that inventory? Which public officers were responsible for flouting the law? ”, the group quizzed.

Demanding for answers

The statement indicated that the Act demanded that the arrested persons be tried in court and when convicted, the court was empowered to “order the forfeiture of any equipment seized.”

Urging the government to explain to Ghanaians whether the persons from whom the equipment was seized were duly prosecuted or not, the groups posited: “Without prosecution, the seized equipment cannot be forfeited in the manner the law demands.”

The group also demanded why the policy document on the road map for the lifting of the ban on artisanal and small scale mining and the way forward, which directed the movement of all earth-moving mining equipment for artisanal and small-scale mining to designated areas for subsequent registration and installation of tracking devices, had not been implemented.

Wrong signal

“If the government with all the power and force at its disposal is unwilling to or incapable of implementing and enforcing its own laws, then it gives a signal to potential wrongdoers that we have no respect for the rule of law; it is just something we mention to others to make us feel good.

That is why the nation is still under brazen attack from illegal miners,” it said.

The statement noted that the actions by the government not to punish wrongdoers sent a signal that although the military had been deployed, it had no teeth to bite.

“Nowhere is this more evident than the blatant illegal mining at the place called “Dollar Power,” and the apparent inability or unpreparedness of the government to enforce the law there. This, and the impunity it connotes, should be a scar on our conscience,” it stated.

It called on the government to shake itself out of its stupor and enforce the mining law without fear or favour.

The two groups also urged the media and civil society organisations to reawaken, hold leadership to account and reinvigorate the #StopGalamsey war.

“Losing this war is not an option. Irresponsible and unsustainable mining is an existential threat and should not be countenanced,” it said.