President John Dramani Mahama has dismissed calls for a state of emergency to tackle illegal mining, insisting that existing laws give security agencies enough power to act.
“I’ve been reluctant to implement a state of emergency in the galamsey fight, because we’ve not exhausted the powers we even have without a state of emergency,” Mahama said on Wednesday (10 September) during his engagement with the media at Jubliee House.
“Implementing a state of emergency might sound nice, but it should be the last resort. For now, let’s exercise all the powers we have.”
He added: “If it becomes necessary for a state of emergency, then we’ll look at it. It means we have to go to Parliament. The president can’t just declare a state of emergency without going to Parliament, because there’s a limit to how long you can maintain it.”
Mahama said the government is relying on initiatives such as the deployment of “Blue River Guards” to patrol major water bodies and destroy illegal mining equipment. “So far those we’ve trained are 600 and something. They are not enough to cover even the length of the Ankobra. As we recruit and deploy … if they see any Changfan machines on the water body, they seize it and we burn it, we destroy it,” he said.
He stressed that the destruction of forest reserves poses a bigger danger than mining on rivers. “If you destroy the forest reserve, the river or the stream will dry up. Because where it takes its water source will no longer exist.
“That’s why at the beginning of the struggle, I said our focus is going to be on the water bodies and the forest reserves.”
