We must win galamsey fight without killings – MP

A ranking member on Parliament’s Defense and Interior, Committee Ernest Norgbey has urged the government’s anti-galamsey task-force to be tactful in fighting the menace.

“We must win the fight, but we shouldn’t be killing illegal miners,” he cautioned in the wake of reports that the task-force shot dead an illegal miner at Wawase in the Ashanti region.

Describing the death of the miner whose identity is unknown as “unfortunate”, Mr. Norgbey said henceforth, “We must handle the fight with the good measure of tact so that we do not lose many souls.”

Speaking at the launch of the task-force – code-named – “Operation Vanguard”, its chairman Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng warned that any attempt to impede the force exercising its mandate will be fiercely resisted.

“My advice to aggrieved associations or groups of people is that they should not attempt to stampede, obstruct or use any unlawful means to prevent this task force from exercising its mandate,” warned the Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) at the launch of the inter-ministerial task-force.

The deceased illegal miner, according to the Public Relations Officer of the task-force, Maj. Gariba Pabi, together with his colleagues pelted stones and fired at the force in protest of its activities.

“We are in the Ashanti region to carry out His Excellency President Akufo-Addo’s initiative against galamsey. Today, our personnel from Ashanti region on patrols around Wawase area chanced upon galamseyers who threw stones at them and fired gunshots.

“So the task-force fired warning shots to scare them away. After everything, we cordon the area for a search. After the search, one person with a gunshot wound was found. He was given first aid and rushed to AGA Hospital and he was pronounced dead at the hospital,” he recounted in an interview with Starr News.