On 25 October 2016 the Daily Graphic reported that two Chinese nationals Li Wen Qieng, 28 and Mo Sin Shan, 35, were arrested on 22 October 2016 “for allegedly destroying land belonging to the Ghana Cocoa Board” at Wassa Saman in the Wassa Mampong District of the Western Region.
According to the report, the Deputy Intelligence Manager of COCOBOD, Mr Wisdom Amehame, said a security guard of the Seed Production Department of the COCOBOD spotted the two, “who had erected canopies and were using two bulldozers to clear the land for mining.”
He alerted the Intelligence Department of COCOBOD and with the assistance of the police, the two were arrested. However, the two were released on bail because the Wassa Akropong Police could not get anyone to translate from Chinese to English for the suspects to be interrogated.
The report went on: “Mr Amehame said the two [Chinese nationals] then went back to the parcel of land and continued with the clearing of about 4.5 acres that night.
The attention of officials of COCOBOD was once again drawn to the activities of the two and they once again caused the arrest of the suspects. [This time] with the help of an interpreter, they were able to find out that the two had come into the country by the invitation of a Ghanaian, popularly known as “Wonder” of Wonder Mining Company Limited.” “Wonder” was the person who “led the two to the land of the COCOBOD, for them to start their illegal activity – mining for gold. “Wonder” was also the person who stood bail for the two [Chinese nationals] when they were first arrested.
But upon the re-arrest and interrogation of the two, “Wonder” got the hint that he had been “found out, and therefore absconded.”
This story illustrates the incompetence and unconcern with the galamsey that is destroying our water-bodies and farms are viewed by some of the state institution of Ghana that should be protecting our natural heritage from being wantonly despoiled by foreigners with the active connivance of unpatriotic Ghanaians.
As soon as the story made it to the internet, a puzzled Ghanaian asked: [so] “Briefing the media, the Deputy Intelligence Manager of COCOBOD, Mr Wisdom Delali Amehame, said a security guard of the Seed Production Department of the COCOBOD spotted the two who had erected canopies and were using two bulldozers to clear the land for mining?
“Haba, they drove bulldozers and their camping gears into the forest and no one found this suspicious until they despoiled the lands? A bulldozer? How did they get it into such hinterlands? The Police and all the folks at Wassa never heard the booming noise of bulldozers in their backyard?”
The puzzled Ghanaian went on:
“We are just our own enemies! No wonder they even got ‘Mr Boy Wonder’ to bail them, a native local, inviting foreigners to come and exploit us! What can one say? Has no-one ever told our Police that foreigners infringing our laws, deserve no bail? Scratch you head – this is not an isolated case. Chinese rationals have taken over parts of Denkyira, doing petty trading as well as being gold dealers and of course galamseying. And no one seems to know what to do with them. I bet that before dealing in gold, one must be a registered dealer. But I very much doubt if the Chinese dealers are holding the right documentation. Ghana eha ye de papa!! (Ghana is a very sweet place!”).
In all seriousness the inspector-General of Police would do well to order an immediate enquiry into the circumstances under which these galamsey operators were granted bail. In particular the IGP should please note that the name of the Ghanaian who stood bail for the Chinese nationals is conspicuously missing from the report of the incident. Should we suspect that the police are deliberately shielding “Mr Wonder” of “Wonder Mining Company”?
And in his briefings to the media why didn’t the COCOBOD “intelligence official” manage to disclose the name of “Mr Wonder” to them? Was he not curious about the identity of a Ghanaian who had brought people all the way from China to steal the property of the COCOBOD his employer?
It must be fully understood that no-one can stand bail for another person without his name and residential address being provided to the police as a condition for the bail being granted. Yet in this case which could have been used by the police and the COCOBOD to educate the public about the national calamity unfolding before our very eyes in the form of the galamsey epidemic, the principal culprit so far has been protected from being named and shamed!
That’s a dereliction of duty of the first order, because, in fact, “Mr Wonder”, the Ghanaian, can be charged with more serious crimes than the Chinese nationals. First of all, he has engaged in conspiracy – conspiracy to procure foreign personnel and equipment for engaging in an unlawful purpose, to wit – stealing and vandalising land and property (cocoa seedlings) belonging to the state of Ghana.
He can also be charged with aiding and abetting the commitment of a crime, to wit – the wanton vandalisation of a state installation.
I now turn my attention to the Ghanaian media which reported the arrest of the Chinese nationals. Am I to understand that the standards of journalism have become so low that not even one of the people who have written about the incident had their curiosity aroused with regard to who the “Mr Wonder” o9f the story really is?
After all, there is a clue lying in front of their very eyes – the name of his company, “Wonder mining Company”! The office of the Registrar of Companies would take two minutes to let them know whether such a company has ever been registered and if so, who are the directors of the company and what their addresses are!
I am even more disappointed with our news editors and features editors. For here is a classic example of a story that must be followed up, if ever there was one.
I, hereby, urge my colleagues in the media to adopt the ending of galamsey as a campaign story that’s worth every ounce of their time and attention. For if we sit down unconcerned and allow all our water bodies to become dried up because they have been turned upside down and our cocoa and food farms have also b1een plundered and rendered inoperable, the Chinese will return to their country and help it to overtake the United States as the world’s leading economic power. And we shall be reduced to begging them for food and even – ordinary water to drink. And they would be within their rights to deny us both – and even to laugh at us. For few people can have any sympathy for those who stupidly allow their own habitat to be wantonly destroyed.
By Cameron Duodu