Security Analyst, Dr. Kwesi Anning, has said government deserves commendation for the fight against illegal mining also known as galamsey in the country.
According to him, persons behind the booming galamsey business are usually powerful people in society, hence fighting them is not an easy task.
“When as a government you begin to tackle criminal enterprises who have had a new way to abuse and misuse their authority and to exploit the state; they fight back and create even more violence. Fighting galamsey alone is enough to give them kudos because the galamsey fight that the president is leading through his ministers is not just about small boys and girls running around polluting our waters,” Dr. Anning said on the Citi Breakfast Show on Wednesday.
Government has recently waged a massive war on galamsey following a huge advocacy spearheaded by the media especially Citi FM.
Government has subsequently banned small scale mining for six months in a bid to curb the galamsey menace, which has polluted a number of water bodies and destroyed farm lands.
Who buys the galamsey gold?
A military officer, Captain Maxwell Adam Mahama, was killed at Denkyira-Obausi in the Central Region on Monday after he and his colleagues were deployed to the town to fight illegal miners.
The security analyst further enquired about persons who purchase the gold extracted by the galamseyers, adding that some of the violence being recorded in the mining areas might have been masterminded by the buyers of the gold.
“Let’s ask the tough questions – who buys the gold? Is it Islamic state, is it Al-Qaeda, is it used to support some of the violence in the Middle East? When you test their interest, of course they will try to discredit the government. So we should not be bamboozled by a little setback…we’ve got to look at the bigger picture,” he added.
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