A leading member of the Movement for Change, Solomon Owusu, has called on President John Dramani Mahama to immediately sack District Chief Executives (DCEs) in areas where NAIMOS conducted illegal mining raids and made arrests.

Speaking on Joy Prime on October 9, 2025, Owusu stated that taking such drastic action would serve as a deterrent to other appointees in mining-dominated areas.

Galamsey Fight: NAIMOS crushes illegal mining activities on Ankobra River

“… So, I believe that the issue that the president raised that if you are a DCE, and you are unable to control or deal with issues of ‘galamsey’, you have to be sacked, must be revisited. For instance, all these areas that NAIMOS did the raid, what is the DCE still doing at post? What is the police commander still doing at post? Immediately the president must sack the person,” he fumed.

Owusu further accused local security heads of being compromised and acting as informants for illegal miners, undermining the government’s efforts to combat “galamsey”.

He questioned why security agencies couldn’t work together to fight the menace, and why it had to take personnel from Accra to take action instead.

“That is the issue. It tells you that the district police command, the regional police command, the NIB, National Security and all those that matter in the district are compromised; so it has to take someone from Accra to go and deal with the issues. Most of the police you see or find at the various barriers are informants to these ‘galamseyers’.

NAIMOS arrests two Chinese for illegal mining in Tano Anwia forest

“So, if you have engaged NAIMOS, they will tell you that one of their biggest challenges is that, when they are going to a site, informants who are the security people inform these ‘galamseyers’ [about the raid] so by the time they get there, most of the time they don't even get the people. So, what they are doing now is surprises. When they are going to a site, they don't even inform local security. How can we be living in a country where security institutions cannot work together?” he queried.

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"The President must sack the DCEs in all areas NAIMOS has raided" – Solomon Owusu, Lead Member, Movement for Change #PrimeMorning

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