The Deputy Minister-designate for Lands and Natural Resources, Benito Owusu-Bio has defended government’s decision to burn excavators of illegal miners, stating “the act will ensure lives are protected.”
He noted that it is better to burn excavators than allow people die from polluted water bodies.
He shared with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show: “You might think of the excavators today but have we thought of the people in the villages who might fetch the polluted water for consumption?
Machines are created by man while lives are created by God. For the machines, we can always replace them. But for lives, can we resurrect them when they die? I plead with you not to compare even one life with machines. If we do that then it means as a country, we don’t know what we are about.”
Benito Owusu-Bio confirmed that currently there are persons who have been allowed to mine because they do not breach any law and have all their documents intact. But for those affected by what is happening, these ones’ actions are affecting the environment.
“We are working with the law. For someone destroying our water bodies, whatever the person is doing now can kill people in the future because the water bodies are flowing to somewhere for someone else to drink. For such a person, we can say he or she is doing a grave act and this act can kill others in the future”, he added.
On Friday, April 30th, 2021, Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul stated that all the seized galamsey equipment including excavators will be destroyed on site by the military officers deployed to the galamsey areas.
“We are not seizing any equipment, no equipment will be returned home, they will all be destroyed on site. No excavator, nothing will come back home,” the Minister said at a press conference.
His statement followed President Akufo-Addo’s order for the deployment of about 200 soldiers to mining areas to clamp down on activities by illegal miners.
But the Small-Scale Miners Association has accused the government of launching the Operation Halt campaign just to oust small-scale miners from the mining sector and make way for NPP bigwigs to engage in galamsey.
By: Alberta Dorcas N D Armah