President Nana Akufo-Addo
President Akufo-Addo has asked any individual or groups who feel the government’s clampdown on the activities of illegal small scale miners (galamseyers) is unlawful, to go to court for redress.
He is unperturbed about the criticism coming from some quarters against the action of soldiers chasing these illegal miners and destroying equipment being used to destroy the country’s water bodies and forest reserves.
Speaking at the sod cutting ceremony for the commencement of the $55million Law Village project in Accra yesterday, President Akufo-Addo said “I know there are some who believe that the ongoing exercise of ridding our water bodies and forest zone of harmful equipment and machinery is unlawful and in some cases harsh, I strongly disagree and I would advise those who take a contrary view to go to court to vindicate their position if they so wish.”
The President, a lawyer, said that “I should know the Ghana Law Reports of modern times are littered with cases in which my clients thought it necessary to challenge government action in the majority of the cases, the courts upheld my contention in a few others they did not,” adding “that is the rule of law which does not recognise social status, religious persuasion, political affiliation, ethnic origins or regional adherence, merely the law and precedent, the ancient common law doctrine of stare decisis.”
President Akufo-Addo (4th right) and Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah (3rd left) cutting the sod for the
construction of the Law Village of the Ghana School of Law.
He quoted the Minerals and Mining Act 2006 (703), the vehicle through which a mineral licence is acquired and confers mineral rights on the holder that says that “any person who without a valid licence conveys any equipment onto a piece of land purportedly to conduct activities from the search, reconnaissance, prospecting, exploration or mining for a mineral, commits grievous crimes against the state.
“Indeed, a personal possession of a valid licence but undertakes mining in water bodies or mines unlawfully in protected forest zones also commits an illegality,” he said.
Apart from the criminal violations of Act 703, he said “the activities of such persons desecrate our environment, pollute our water bodies and endanger the lives of present and future generations of Ghanaians,” adding “their monumental crimes should not be condoned in any shape or form.”
He, therefore, insisted that “the presence of Changfang in water bodies is illegal as is the unlawful use of excavators in protected forest zones.”
The President said that “the devastation caused by these equipment is nothing short of evil and we should not compromise in our efforts to protect our environment, forest reserve and water bodies.”
“I say with all the emphasis at my command that no rights can accrue to or flow from the criminal venture of galamsey,” he noted, whiles insisting “the equipment which is being used for an illegal or criminal purpose cannot confirm on the owner or any other person any rights whatsoever.”
He, therefore, appealed to the public, including many in the opposition who are so doing to rally behind government in its efforts to stamp out what he described as “far-reaching illegality and criminality rather than advocate for the protection of non-existent rights of persons caught in this evil activity.”
“I swore an oath on 7th January to be faithful and true to the Republic of Ghana that is exactly what I’m doing in the fight against galamsey,” he assured.
He, therefore, paid tribute to the Ghana Armed Forces who stepped forward to perform their patriotic duties in this exercise, saying “they deserve the loud praise of the nation.”
By Charles Takyi-Boadu