Traditional leaders urged to partner gov’t in galamsey fight

Land expert and lecturer at the University of Cape Coast, Eng. Dr. Ebenezer Gyamera has called on traditional leaders in the country to make it an effort to partner government in the fight against illegal mining referred to in the local parlance as galamsey.

According to him, chiefs have key role to play in ensuring that illegal mining of gold is clamped down.

Speaking in an interview with Cape Coast-based Eagle FM, on Wednesday, January 17, Dr. Gyamera said: “Our forests are getting destroyed [through galamsey] and the question is, ‘what are we doing about it?’ The Chinese ambassador to Ghana once said when they come to Ghana, they don’t know where our forest is. That, we take them there. So, the destroying of the forest is our own doing.”

He said if all the chiefs in Ghana were to give a strong warning for miners to desist from entering their forests, there will be no illegal mining activity in such areas.

“In times past, we had what we called the palace police. They must be brought back to augment the work of the security forces in bringing to book these illegal miners,” he added.

Eng. Dr. Ebenezer Gyamera also called for decentralization of the Lands Commission and “make its administration digitized” to ensure we have fast and smooth process in land acquisition.

“I see no reason why someone in Kasoa should, for instance, purchase a parcel of land and such a fellow will have to travel from his or her base to Cape Coast just to register that land,” he said.