In a renewed effort to tackle illegal mining, known locally as galamsey, Interior Minister Muntaka Mubarak has ordered the immediate transfer of all police commanders in mining zones.
The minister declared that district, divisional, and regional police commanders currently assigned to mining areas will be changed immediately during a meeting with Imams and Zongo Chiefs in Kumasi on Thursday, April 3.
“I have ordered the IGP to transfer all police commanders in all mining areas and send in new ones. So if you are a regional, divisional, or district police commander serving in mining areas, you will be changed with immediate effect,” he said.
Mubarak threatened to remove the recently hired cops immediately if they did not produce results within three months.
“The new ones we are taking there will be transferred after three months if they don’t perform. We will keep making changes till we see results,” he added.
The decision was issued in response to growing concerns about how law enforcement should combat illegal mining, which has seriously harmed the environment by destroying farmland and polluting rivers.
Critics have accused some security officers of either ignoring the illegal operations or participating in them, putting pressure on the government to take more aggressive action against Galamsey.
Because of their terrible effects on the environment and public health, galamsey operators must be considered “terrorists,” according to the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources.
Armah-Kofi Buah said during a news briefing that illicit mining is putting individuals’ lives in jeopardy in addition to harming the nation’s natural resources.
We cannot allow a few individuals to profit at the expense of millions of Ghanaians. These individuals are killing us, and we must now begin to see them as dangerous terrorists,” he stated.
Source: newsthemegh.com