[ 2017-04-19 ]

Captain (retd) Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey

You can’t sit in Accra and ban galamsey – Effah Dartey
A legal practitioner, Captain (retd) Nkrabeah
Effah-Dartey has professed his version of how to
fight the illegal mining menace and suggested
that, “sitting in Accra to ban galamsey is a
joke.”

In a radio interview on Accra-based Okay FM on
Wednesday, Mr Effah-Darteh said illegal mining was
“endemic” because it was easy to find gold in
every part of Ghana and hence it was a source of
livelihood for the youth.

He said even though there was no gold in the
Berekum area where he hails and served as a
Parliamentarian, he was aware galamsey was the
livelihood of many youths who on a good day, are
able to earn Gh¢1000 or Gh¢2000.

And since galamsey was even a threat to licensed
and law abiding small scale miners who pay taxes,
there was the need to have a holistic solution.

He, therefore, suggested a registration of all
illegal miners in the country so that their
operations could be monitored and controlled.

District assembly members in his view should be
used to facilitate the registration so that
non-Ghanaians like the Chinese could be identified
and stopped from being registered.

After this, they would have to work in groups of
20s and 50s and assigned operational areas so as
to make monitoring easy, he said.

The former Berekum legislator disagreed with the
notion that chiefs were deeply involved in the
menace since they give out the lands.

Rather, he said since galamsey operators are not
organised and controlled, they don’t normally
seek permission to enter people’s lands to
mine.

He, therefore, advised the campaigners for the ban
on galamsey to take their campaign to
‘trenches.’

“In my honest view, if we sit in Accra and
legislate to ban galamsey, we would be joking. It
is like saying you are banning prostitution. You
can control it, but to ban it, I’m afraid
because it is something people do every blessed
day,” he said.

Source - Graphic.com.gh

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