Hand over the galamsey fight to the GAF and reintroduce the firing squad – NPP Chair

The chairman of the United Kingdom Branch of the Governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has proposed the use of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) in dealing with the illegal mining menace, popularly known as galamsey.

Kingsley Adumattah Agyapong, otherwise known as Wofa K, says the military must be granted full control in dealing with the crisis.

In his view, the galamsey menace must be declared a war, so our military will be in charge of dealing with it without any form of interference.

He stated that the GAF personnel have not really gone to war on behalf of Ghana, but they get paid; hence, this was an opportunity to test their combat skills.

He said there are professional engineers and other technical professionals who are military personnel whose expertise would be required in handling the situation.

He made the suggestion in an interview on Rainbow Radio 92.4FM, UK, with host Sir Richie on the ‘As it is in Ghana’ show. “When you travel around the world, we have battalions and regiments, and when there is a disaster, they put them on the field to resolve the problem.

"The soldiers have engineers, carpenters, and other professionals. My advice on dealing with this canker is not only limited to this government. We need to delegate this whole thing to the military to go to war.

"We have not really gone to war since I was born till now; we have never gone to war before. We have had military officers who have served and sent their children to universities, and they have also joined the Forces.

"Can’t we design the whole program and hand it over to the military? They are very disciplined people. We should hand it over to them so they will go and build their houses, cubicles, toilets, and kitchens in these mining areas. They should live there forever so the government will have the peace of mind to develop the country,” he suggested.

He also suggested that Ghana reintroduce the firing squad system to ensure that those who are stubborn and still engage in illegal mining are sent to the firing squad and dealt with. This should also apply to the soldiers who accept bribes and allow the illegal miners to mine.

“We should allow the military to manage the crisis as I suggested and let anyone dare to enter these sites and mine and see what will happen. If we decide to do this, we will succeed.

"The NDC is promising the illegal miners they will allow them to mine while some NPP people are scared to speak against the issue because of the fear of losing the elections.

"So, what do we do? We have to deal with it through a nationalistic approach. Let the military people go to these areas and live there and let anyone enter these sites and engage in illegal activities.

"And if you are a soldier deployed to the sites and accept bribes and allow illegal mining, you would be dealt with. That is why I am also proposing the return of the firing squad system so that such persons are sent there and dealt with. Ghanaians are fed up with galamsey, and if we are able to deal with the problem, Ghanaians will vote for us and will not vote against the NPP.”

He also stated that those young men who are usually arrested in the mining areas are not actually the criminals but those who have resources and are sponsoring them.

He described them as “galamsey criminals” who are engaging in criminality and destroying our water bodies and forest reserves for their selfish interests. He said we cannot pretend to deal with this if these young people are not granted alternative livelihoods.

He suggested that every galamsey-prone area should have systems in place that will grant the youth involved opportunities to have a different alternative to life.