Excavators are not mobile phones, find them – Ashigbe tells Minister

The Media Coalition Against Galamsey has expressed its disappointment in the Minister for Environment, Science, technology and innovation Prof. Frimpong Boateng over the missing excavators.

“We cannot just allow excavators to go missing. We know that excavators are not mobile phones that you can just put in your pocket. It’s the reason why the minerals and mining Act is clear on what should happen to you once you’re found with an excavator. You’re supposed to be arrested and the excavator confiscated and kept with the police”

Mr Ashigbey, the convenor of the coalition wondered how the excavators made it to the illegal mining sites but had now disappeared after being seized.

“So how come these excavators who found their way to the MMDAs and now the excavators cannot be found? Who were the officers responsible? These officers who handle these excavators must provide some answers and must be brought to book” he told Joy FM.

Mr Ashigbey’s demands come after the minister disclosed that some seized excavators belonging to illegal miners cannot be traced.

Several seized ‘galamsey’ excavators missing – Minister reveals

 

The minister who spoke in an interview on Joy FM monitored by theghanareport.com  denied figures attributed former Lands and Natural Resources Minister, John-Peter Amewu, that a total of 500 excavators were seized.

“That was not the case. We were told that 500 had been seized and given to the district assemblies. But later on, when we out to check, the figure was far less than that” he said.

When asked to state the actual figure, the minister said: “I cannot tell you exactly what but I can tell you it was far lower than the 500 put out”.

According to Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, though the excavators were seized and taken to the district assemblies, the heavy-duty machines disappeared later from the premises of the assemblies.

“That was the case in most of the areas so we sent people out there to talk to the district assemblies and we got Vanguard involved and most of them had disappeared” he revealed.

This response from the minister has not gone down well with a section of the public who are demanding answers from the government.

Mr Ashigbey, a loud voice against illegal mining, wants the government to hold persons who were in charge of the seized excavators at the various district assemblies responsible for the missing equipment.

Ban on galamsey

In recent times, there have been fresh agitations over the activities of illegal miners in the country ever since the Ghana Water Company Limited begun to raise red flags about the state of the Ankobrah River in the Western Region where the pollution is increasing the cost of water for consumption.

The activities of miners in some parts of the country have led to the destruction of several water bodies including the Pra, Densu and Offin rivers.

This led to a temporal ban on the activities of small-scale miners in March 2017 as part of efforts to sanitise the sector and cleanse the water bodies which serves millions of households in Ghana.

The two-year ban was, however, lifted on December 17, 2018. The minister for environment, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng during a ceremony to announce the unveiling of the ban said only registered and validated small scale miners would be allowed to mine in their designated concessions.

But this has been called into question again after some people were spotted busily engaging in illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, during an unannounced visit by the Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Kweku Asomah Cheremeh.

Prof. Frimpong-Boateng attributed the ongoing activities of illegal miners to “indiscipline” on the part of Ghanaians.