The Board Chairman of the National Theatre, Nana Fredua Agyeman Ofori-Atta, has backed the calls by Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa on galamsey.
Hon. Samuel Ablakwa says the fight against the galamsey menace will be successful if the kingpins are arrested.
To him, burning the excavators will yield no results unless “one galamsey overlord, one real architect, an actual financier is arrested and prosecuted”.
So far, over 200 excavators and changfang machines have been burned.
Hon. Ablakwa, in an interview with Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM’s morning show ”Kokrokoo”, asked ”why are we doing the same thing and expecting different results?”.
“How come not even one architect behind this galamsey operation has been arrested? To start a galamsey operation, you need millions of Ghana cedis and so the real perpetrators are not those small boys or the youth who are risking their lives,” he added.
He suggested that, “instead of arresting these guys, we should make them an offer for them to lead us to the real kingpins; if we follow the chain, it will lead us to the barons. Unless we get the real perpetrators, we will always come back to square one”.
Touching on the galamsey menace also on ‘Kokrokoo’, Nana Fredua agreed to Hon. Ablakwa’s suggestions stressing arresting the culprits is the surest way to resolve the menace.
He called on the government to stop burning the excavators saying, ”for me, we shouldn’t burn them” but seize them while they focus on arresting the offenders.
He likened galamsey to robbery and asserted that it is only when the kingpins and those involved in galamsey are located and apprehended that the government will achieve its goal.
“I accept that what Hon. Ablakwa said is exactly what we must be done. . . If we admit that galamsey is robbery and you make a move to arrest the culprits, everyone will understand . . . We must all accept that it is robbery. People should be arrested,” he told Kwami Sefa Kayi.