Galamsey: Ade-Coker proposes 5-year ban on all forms of mining in Ghana

One of the key steps to ensure that Ghana’s fight against illegal mining also known as galamsey yields a positive result is placing a ban on the extraction of gold, former Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Joseph Kobina Ade-Coker, has proposed.

His suggestion came to light on Thursday’s edition of the Angel Morning Show said by doing so Ghana could be assured of addressing the matter now turned into a national threat.

He noted that placing the ban on the extraction of gold in the country would help in sanitizing the mining sector.

“The bottom line is that Gold digging must be banned in Ghana, I still insist that for the next five years, no digging of Gold. We have to ban it. Go to Rwanda, they have banned Gold mining,” he told Okatakyie Afrifa-Mensah.

Chairman Ade-Coker as affectionately called in the political terrain also blamed successive leaderships of the country for failing to take pragmatic measures in addressing the problem.

He added that Ghanaian leaders have failed to walk the talk despite numerous promises made to tackle the practice.

He advised members of both the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to take galamsey matters as a national issue and desist from politicizing it as it demands collaborative efforts.

To help revive our forest reserves and water bodies as a result of illegal mining, the NDC man subscribed to the notion that there must be a shoot-and-kill declaration on persons involved in the practice.