Ghanaian Journalist with an interest in environmental issues, Erastus Asare Donkor, has challenged the president’s understanding of issues surrounding the fight against illegal mining in Ghana.

Reacting to the president’s comments on the state of the fight against illegal mining, he said “No!! The president doesn’t have information on the current situation on the ground”.

This was in reaction to the president’s announcement that a new strategy has been put in place to fight the menace.

Under the new approach, military detachments will remain in reclaimed forest reserves to protect them from renewed encroachment, he said.

President Mahama explained that the decision followed the failure of the previous approach, under which cleared forest reserves were handed back to the Forestry Commission.

Speaking during his tour of the Upper East Region, he said illegal miners had repeatedly returned to some reserves after the military and other enforcement teams had cleared them.

“We are working; NAIMOS is working very hard. We’ve seized excavators, we’ve seized Changfan machines, and you drive them out of this area, they run to this other area. But we are making progress,” he said.