Burning of galamsey excavators ‘mindless, lawless’ – Kweku Baako

Kweku Baako Jnr, the Managing editor of The New Crusading Guide newspaper has become the latest public figure to speak against the decision by the government to burn equipment seized at illegal mining sites.

According to him government is setting a bad precedent with the burning of the excavators.

Quoting portions of the law on mining, Baako on Peace FM’s Kokrokoo detailed what he considers to be the appropriate means government can dispose off the machines seized at the sites.

Baako noted that the burning of excavators has not been an effective way of dealing with the menace.

“The burning of excavators is mindless and lawless. This is a law governing society so if you make laws and feel that the law is impossible to implement, there is an option – just amend the law. You don’t make a law and let the law prevail but go out there to violate the law and it’s state-actors who are engaged in mindless and lawless actions. I’m unable to reconcile that.”

“During the Mahama crusade, we burnt excavators. Akufo-Addo’s campaign too we are burning excavators. When we seized some equipment, didn’t they go missing? Didn’t some of them go back to field?

Baako intimated that government has resorted to burning the equipment to cover up for its own “institutional impotence and dysfunctional system."

“So here we are admitting our chronic impotence. Institutional impotence and dysfunctional system so we seek refuge and say burn the things. Is that a solution? The law says when you seize it, take the illegal miners to court and if the court convicts them, it hands over the equipment to the appropriate authority,” he said.