Dominic Nitiwul, the Defence Minister of Ghana has stated that measures to halt the night illegal mining activities are pushing through and the anti-galamsey Operation Halt team will direct its focus on night miners.
According to him, the illegal soldiers will be deployed to the areas where the illegal miners carry out their activities in the coming days.
Speaking at the Minister Press briefing in Accra on Wednesday, Mr Nitiwul noted that they are aware of the night miners activities and has warned them to stop or risk being killed.
“We know that they do that from 9 pm to 4 am”, indicating: “That’s how brave they are. We know and we know the towns they are doing it in, so, we will come after you”, he warned, adding: “Don’t try it. So, if you go out there to mine, I cannot guarantee your safety when the soldiers are going to apprehend you. So, I will advise you to not go out. It is not worth it.” He said.
Mr Nitiwul also said the soldiers involved in fighting illegal small-scale mining are targeting all illegal mining activities and equipment that pose a threat to Ghana’s water bodies irrespective of whether they belong to licensed or unlicensed miners.
“And, so, they said: ‘We have a license; yes, we have a mining lease, so, for us they will not touch us’, but what they did not know is that we are not touching the licenses, it’s the illegality we are touching; our target was the illegality, our target was protecting water bodies and their tributaries, not your license”.
“Yes, you can have a license but if you are destroying the water bodies, the soldiers were supposed to make sure that they take out the equipment you are using, so, the soldiers were not out to inspect licenses”, he stressed.
