Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, a diplomat and former Chief Executive Officer of
the Volta River Authority (VRA) says the State must focus on arresting wealthy and influential
individuals, who finance the activities of illegal miners to demonstrate its commitment to fighting
the menace.
He said the arrest of workers at illegal mining sites was not the solution to the problem and
recommended that ‘kingpins’ who funded illegal mining activities should be apprehended and made
to face the law.
In an interview on Class FM on Tuesday, monitored by the Ghana News Agency, Mr Wereko-Brobby
said the ‘fight against galamsey must be fought in a very honest way.’
‘We made a lot of noise about Aisha Huang but what happened to her? The laws of this land are
clear. Small-scale mining belongs to Ghanaians. So, who are the Ghanaians, who get the licenses and
invite the Chinese to front for them?
‘If we are really serious about fighting galamsey, then we really ought to go hard against the local
kingpins who are fronting and financing (the illegality),’ Mr Wereko-Brobby said.
He said the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) was not charged with the mandate to fight illegal
mining. but investigating corruption related issues that had been brought to its attention with
respect to the work of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining.
‘The OSP is not charged with fighting galamsey but to fight corruption,’ Mr Wereko-Brobby said and
added that ‘we must unearth all those who are financing and fronting for foreigners.’
Mr Wereko-Brobby said one of the main challenges affecting the ability of politicians to tackle such illegalities head-on was the nature of the country’s political financing structure.
‘The political system is set up in such a way that people who want power will have to invest a lot of
money and a lot of the time they do not have the money and patrons sponsor their political
ambition and when they win power the first thing they want to do is to satisfy those who helped
them to get power,’ he said.
Mr Wereko-Brobby rallied the youth to rise against any form of oppression and demand
accountability from authorities to safeguard their future.
Source: Ghana News Agency