Impose stiffer punishment for galamseyers — Ashigbey
The convener of the Media Coalition Against Galamsey, Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, has called for a stiffer punishment for persons who defied the ban on illegal mining to engage in the illegality.
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According to him, the current sanctions for illegal miners, who are mostly fined, was not deterrent enough to scare people from engaging in the act.
He is of the opinion that when illegal mining culprits are given stiffer punishment, it would frighten people from joining the illegal business.
Red Friday
Mr Ashigbey made this known in an interview with the Daily Graphic, concerning the upcoming ‘Red Friday’ and Town Hall Meeting on galamsey slated for tomorrow, September 29, 2017 at Wassa Akropong in the Western Region.
Red Friday and Town Hall Meetings were initiated by the Media Coalition Against Galamsey to create awareness about the dire effects of illegal mining in the country, particularly on our water bodies and forests.
Touching on the upcoming event, Mr Ashigbey, who is the Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), said: “The plan is to focus this Red Friday on the progress of the campaign”.
He, however, expressed worry that the impetus of the Red Friday campaign was going down among the Ghanaian public.
He attributed the waning impact of the occasion partly to some successes the campaign had chalked up since its inception.
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Punishment
Concerning court cases involving illegal miners, Mr Ashigbey expressed unhappiness that illegal miners who had been sent to court were only fined a meagre amount and were freed.
He cited an instance where about 12 illegal miners who were arrested with GH¢60,000 were only fined about GH¢1,800 and freed.
That, he said, was no issue to the illegal miners since “all they did was to ask the court to take their fine and give them their balance”.
According to Mr Ashigbey, most of the illegal miners would go back to the illegality if they were only fined meagre amount without any deterring punishments.
He said the first conviction from the Operation Vanguard that was set up by the President and other relevant ministries to end illegal mining were fined about GH¢2,400.
He added that some Chinese and Ghanaian illegal miners, who were granted bail after they were caught in the illegal trade three days after their bail, went into the illegality again.
The Graphic MD said although under the Minerals and Mining Act there “is custodial and fine”, it seemed the judges were only applying the fine option.
Mr Ashigbey, therefore, called on state prosecutors, the Chief Justice and the Attorney-General to look at the punishment options for the illegal mining culprits.
Efforts
He, however, called on other media organisations to intensify their efforts in the fight against galamsey, noting that it was the collective effort of the various media organisations that could help end the illegal mining activities in the country.
He commended the Operation Vanguard team for their work so far, saying their presence in the galamsey areas had not only reduced galamsey activities but had helped to reduce the crime rate in such areas.