First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Joe Osei Owusu,
The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Joe Osei Owusu, is lamenting the rate at which law enforcement agencies and the general public are watching on unconcerned as others destroy the environment.
He bemoaned the fact that wrongdoers had had their way in the Ghanaian setup for far too long and that had largely contributed to the breakdown in law and order, especially in mining areas.
Speaking on the floor of Parliament, the Deputy Speaker said the existing laws are not punitive and deterrent enough to ward off evildoers and called on the security agencies to be ruthless.
“There are some countries as recently as the 60s, if you littered you were shot in the street. That was the law and they implemented it. Sometimes we need to be strong on wrongdoers,” the Member of Parliament for Bekwai stated.
“We are pampering wrongdoers in this country too much and they are not many. So Mr Speaker, I think we should stand by the military and we should all stand together to ensure that our water bodies are clean and safe,” he opined.
The Deputy Speaker was contributing to a discussion on the floor after a group of soldiers allegedly burnt down heavy sand-mining machines in the North over the weekend.
Mr Owusu justified the military’s action because “they (the illegal miners) are destroying our source of water.”
He added: “I have made some very extreme suggestions and I know people are not happy about that but regrettably I don’t have the authority and if I had I would have made the law that if you find people on the water body shoot them. That is how recalcitrant those people are.”
According to him, the miners can resort to the law court if they feel aggrieved over the action.
“Let them come and prove they were there legally. If they were not there those extreme measures would not have been necessary,” the Bekwai lawmaker pointed out.
