Defence Minister promises stiffer legal actions against Galamsey Operators

Ghana’s Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul has warned that the government would continue to punish all persons involved in illegal mining operations in the country. 

According to him, the government would continue its investigations into illegal mining activities still ongoing in the country and impose various sanctions on the guilty persons. He further cautioned owners of excavators to desist from lending their equipment to people who would use them in the forests, lest they be liable to the same sanctions. He made these remarks at a press briefing held at the Ministry of Information in Accra on Wednesday morning. 

“Burning the excavators is just the first part of it… We are finding the people involved and we are investigating the background of the people involved who the excavators are for, using chassis numbers. We are going to investigate all this and anybody found guilty would be punished… if you have an excavator, don’t lend it to anybody to take it to the forest reserve”, he said.

His comments come barely a week after pressure group, OccupyGhana criticized the President for urging persons who are dissatisfied over the burning of their excavators to go to court.