We’re deceiving ourselves with galamsey fight if politicians behind it aren’t arrested - Asantehene

The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has once again berated the government for failing to take the needed steps to curb the menace of illegal small-scale mining, popularly known as galamsey. According to the Asantehene, the government knows the politicians and government officials who are financing galamsey activities but has failed to arrest them, and it is rather arresting and prosecuting galamseyers, who are mere tools being used by these politicians. He added that if the government does not start arresting persons who finance galamsey activities, it will never be able to stop the menace. “We all know that the galamsey we are all talking about is being championed by some Ghanaians and these Chinese and other nationals they bring in. You are pretending as if you don’t know the people who are into it, but you know all of them. “You are always arresting galamseyers at the sites, but who takes the gold away? Do the illegal miners on the field have the money to buy the excavators they are using; can they afford the chamfans? It is someone who has bought these equipments for them. The illegal miners are people who don’t have jobs and have been employed by these financers and are being paid daily. What have they done wrong? “Government officials, politicians are all implicit in the galamsey menace. They have all bought these excavators and the chamfans… If we don’t arrest them, then we are deceiving ourselves with this fight against galamsey,” he said in Twi at the Manhyia Palace as he was receiving a document on galamsey from the Multimedia Group. The Asantehene said that the very thing about galamsey is that it is destroying water sources for many people. He added that if galamsey is not stopped, it will very soon contaminate the country’s cocoa which will have a devastating effect on Ghana’s economy because no country will accept Ghana’s cocoa exports. Meanwhile, the pollution of water bodies by galamsey seems to be getting to the sea. A viral video sighted by GhanaWeb showed how galamsey activities had heavily polluted parts of the Atlantic Ocean along the Central Region. The narrator in the video indicated that the sea, which was looking brownish, was being polluted by galamsey water from the Pra River. “I’m here at Awona beach, off the Cape Coast road towards Takoradi. You can see the ocean over here. See how brown it is. That is all from the River Pra. That is all muddy matters from galamsey actives. “See all the way over there, the Pra River all the way, all this water is brown. All galamsey water,” he said. Watch the video of Otumfuo’s remarks plus a video of how galamsey is now polluting the sea below: You can also watch this episode of People & Places on GhanaWeb TV: IB/SEA