North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
• The North Tongu MP believes high profile persons are behind galamsey menace
• According to him, it is a fact that galamseyers cannot afford the huge machinery used for operations
• He said those arrested on site should be tasked to give out the names of their bosses
Throughout the fight against illegal small scale mining, popularly known as galamsey, not a single person has been arrested after security personnel stormed mining sites to seize and burn excavators and other equipment.
This is what baffles the Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.
According to him, it is strange that not even one galamsey overlord, financier, big man and woman has been arrested and prosecuted for engaging in the illegality.
In a Facebook post sighted by GhanaWeb, the lawmaker said instead of burning these seized excavators, authorities in charge should rather track the equipment using their unique chassis numbers to find the real owners of the equipment.
He argued that these illegal miners do not have that financial capability to purchase the machines.
“It strikes me as really strange that in this entire galamsey fight we have not had one galamsey overlord, one real architect, an actual financier arrested and prosecuted. Isn’t that where the fight should have started from? We all know from the kind of sophisticated equipment at play that only a few moneybags can initiate a galamsey operation.
“Instead of hurriedly burning excavators, shouldn’t we pay attention to their unique chassis numbers and readily available technology to track the real McCoys who imported or purchased them? It’s definitely not difficult to follow the ownership trail.
Is it not time to put out a handsome amount of money as reward for anyone with information leading to the arrest of the “big men/women” behind the destructively criminal galamsey gang? Remember those cloaked with authority over intelligence gathering say they do not know the real henchmen,” part of his post read.
He suggested that people that get arrested at their various galamsey sites should be asked to reveal their bosses in exchange for their freedom.
This, Mr Ablakwa believes will help in the fight against the canker.
Read his Facebook post below