A/R: Small-scale miners threaten demo over harassment and intimidation

Members of the Ashanti region of the Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners (GNASSM) have threatened to stage a demonstration over unfair treatment meted out to them by the Minister of Lands and Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor.

According to the General Secretary of GNASSM Kwabena Adu Gyamfi, the Minister of Lands and Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has been sitting on a tone of licensure applications for several months without giving them any feedback.

He said the Lands Commission has confirmed to them that the Minister has received the applications but is yet to append his signature to the digital files for them to be able to operate.

He believes the Minister is not dealing in good faith with them and called on the President to step in; otherwise, they will demonstrate on the streets because they are losing their capital, which most of them got from the banks as loans.

“One of our major problems is the minister’s refusal to give us the required license. The Minister has yet to sign over 100 applications that have landed on his desk, and we are daring him to come out and say otherwise if he says we are lying. Some of us small-scale miners are working with loans, and the Minister’s delay is really worrying us and our business.”

“We are also telling the governments that the actions of the Minister contradict his vision to legalise small-scale miners. So we are calling on the government to call the Minister in order for him to give us the licence, and if they are not going to give us the licence to operate too, they have to let us know.”

“We are giving the government a week, and if we don’t hear anything, we will organise ourselves in the Ashanti Region and hit the streets to demonstrate because we are really suffering,” Kwabena Adu Gyamfi said on Rainbow Radio.