Kweku Baako 'clashes' with Kwamena Duncan over the burning of excavators

Former Central Regional Minister Kwamena Duncan and veteran journalist Abdul Malik Kweku Baako have offered dissenting views on the decommissioning and demobilization of equipment seized by personnel of the ‘Operation Halt' at illegal mining sites.

The burning of excavators has become a major topic in the renewed fight against the galamsey menace as some argue on the legitimacy of the actions of government.

Baako on Kokrokoo went hard on the government, accusing them of using a lazy approach to address the issues.

Kweku Baako noted that the state was exhibiting weakness by embarking on an illegal and ‘mindless’ move of burning the excavators.

''It's mindless. It's lawless because this is a law-governed society. And if you make laws and feel the laws are impossible to implement, there is an option. Just amend the law but you don't make what I have here and actually let the law prevail but go out there to violate the law and it's a State institution or State actors who are engaged in that violation, that mindless, lawless action.

''...the law says when you seize it, those using it illegally must be taken to court and by the time you're sending them to court, you must leave those things in Police custody. When the court is done and convicts them, the court hands over the equipment to the appropriate Ministry; in this case, it will be Lands and Natural Resources or so. And then they, on behalf of the State, determine which State institution to give them to.

''...The law says if you see these things, send them to the Police custody and so when you seize them and don't send them to Police custody, you have violated the law and you're liable for prosecution'', he stated.

But Kwamena Duncan disagreed.

He, like the Minister for Lands and Natural Resource, argued that the government is adopting extreme measures to address the issue.

“Who is the victim when it comes to the burning of the excavators? The owner saw the law before doing that? What will sadden me most is we fail in this fight. It will sadden Ghanaians. Rawlings, Kufuor, Mills and Mahama all tried but were not successful. Nana Addo tried but was unsuccessful in his first term, are we saying in all of this nothing was achieved? If Kan Dapaah, Abu Jinapor cannot sustain this fight for us to protect our water bodies and forest, then I will be sad”.

“What are excavators doing on water bodies, what are they doing in the forest. The water that they destroying with the excavators, did they see the law. Those who decided to breach the law, did they see the law? Let us not on the part again so let's burn them,” Kwamena Duncan stressed.