Journalist explains ‘secret’ behind police officers’ restraint in galamsey crackdown

Environmental journalist, Erastus Asare Donkor, has alleged that fear of transfers and pressure from politically exposed individuals have weakened the police fight against illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.

He said some police officers are reluctant to act against illegal mining operators because they feared being transferred, while others allegedly yielded to the demands of District Chief Executives (DCEs) involved in the activity.

“The Ghana Police Service has totally distanced itself from galamsey and I say this on authority.

"Some people are afraid of transfers, some people are afraid of the DCEs, some of whom are seriously engaged in the act, so they kowtow to their demands,” he stated in an interview on Joy FM on October 29, 2026.

Galamsey Fight: NAIMOS arrests two, intercepts truck with 43 changfan machines

He further questioned the commitment of the police to tackling galamsey, claiming that illegal mining was taking place in some communities close to police stations without officers intervening.

“I pictured one community, where galamsey is happening right in front of the police station, and there are two-armed policemen, Go to Manso Adubia where Newmont reclaimed some part of the land, two excavators are sitting on the reclaimed land", he alleged.

According to him, deploying personnel from the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) and other security agencies would not end illegal mining if society continued to tolerate the crime.

"Send the NAIMOS personnel, send all the security personnel, it will never stop,” he said.

He attributed the persistence of illegal mining partly to greed and the unwillingness of some operators to follow the legal procedures for obtaining mining licenses.

JKB/VPO

Ghana Airports at 20: How Two Decades Have Transformed Air Travel