Galamsey Chaos At Hwidiem

 

Galamsey operators have become so emboldened that the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) taskforce no longer constitute a threat to their destructive enterprise.

November opened up with a story about galamseyers reacting to an arrest of their members near Hwidiem.

Not satisfied with the action of the law, they descended upon the Hwidiem Police Station to demand the release of the detained suspects.

Soldiers, including a Colonel, sought refuge at the police station as the galamseyers bayed for their blood.

Eventually, the demands of the illegal miners were met somewhat, which shows how powerful they have become of late.

Under the current political dispensation, illegal miners can do as they wish. As for the occasional highly publicised arrests of illegal miners, they are part of what Ghanaian youth term ‘settings’— for the optics.

What happened at Hwidiem where galamseyers as it were overrun a police station is a dangerous precedent which could be replicated.

Galamsey and its accompanying fallouts are here for a long haul. What could possibly have happened had the police resisted the chaos deliberately caused by the galamseyers who reportedly destroyed public property?

The police must be commended for conducting themselves the way they did, since after all the high class galamseyers who stormed their station were above the law.

In an Animal Farm setting such as ours, four legs are good but two are bad.

A certain judge said so about the country’s ambience.

We should not be surprised when one day we hear about a dangerous clash between so called illegal miners and state agents. With top ruling party activists knee-deep in the galamsey mess, the aforementioned scenario is highly possible.

Indeed, even the report under review was dangerous enough to warrant national attention although there was no fatality. What it means is that we are descending very fast into the abyss of daring lawlessness, the product of which is anybody’s guess.

Must we wait till we find ourselves in the pit of hell before we take action?

What we are being treated to is anything but sincere, especially since we don’t know the contents of the orders given to the so-called taskforce to arrest the situation. For now, it would appear that they are highly restricted in what they can do. Thus leaves the daring illegal miners emboldened by the day.

With nobody arrested and no possible prosecution, the police station is no longer the place to detain galamsey suspects. Not Hwidiem, we can bet because when suspects are sent there, hoodlums will run riot there demanding immediate release of their colleagues and chiefs will come and beg the illegal miners who give them cash to let go their grip.

Call it the dictatorship of galamseyers and you would be on track.

We do not see any urge on the part of those charged with dealing with galamsey to go beyond ordinary patrols and returning to base with occasional seizure of shovels and pick axes.

With the names of some government appointees engaged in galamsey now in the public domain, we are yet to see any action against them.

The influential persons in the Hwidiem community who intervened when the soldiers were taken hostage know those behind the nonsense. If there is sincere urge to track them and bring them to book, they should be located and invited to assist the police to do what is expected of them under such circumstances.

 

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