Rev. Dr. Nii Amoo-Darku, a governing Board Member of the National Peace Council, has called on law enforcement, especially members of Operation Vanguard Taskforce, to approach the fight against illegal mining with restraint.
His urge comes after some members of Operation Vanguard reportedly set ablaze about six excavators belonging to Extra Gold Mines at Anyinam in the Eastern Region.
[contextly_sidebar id=”SqTSV1Q6xXODDzNdo70CGVq9oYkadAZi”]Rev Dr. Amoo-Darku, speaking to journalists in Koforidua on Wednesday at a two-day mediation training workshop, said the seemingly radical approach where people are killed or abused could threaten peace in the country.
“There’s peace in the nation and we thank God for that though there were few skirmishes during and after the December elections, we are grateful to God that we have been able to calm it. We should not rely on what has been done previously but we should build on and do better.”
“In relation to galamsey, we are all witnesses to how the devastating the practice of galamsey has been destroying our farmlands, river bodies and polluting the water that people drink from and therefore, we will plead with government and other stakeholders involved to be magnanimous in dealing with it.”
“We do not anticipate or want to see the situation where people are killed because we want to curb it or even disasters happening because when that happens people will want to fight back so therefore those who have been put in charge and have been asked to deal with the situation must do it with a human face so that there wouldn’t be situations where lives will be lost and properties be destroyed as we are hearing now.”
Small scale miners lament unprovoked attacks
The Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners (GNASSM) also raised concern with what it called ” the unprovoked shoot to kill tactics and the burning of expensive mining equipment belonging to Ghanaians by the “Operation Vanguard”.
The association alleged in a statement that one other person has been killed by the task force, making it two dead in two weeks, after a protestor was shot and killed at Obuasi Anyimadukrom in the Ashanti Region.
“In the less than two weeks of the deployment of the taskforce, two unarmed civilians have been killed and several excavators set ablaze without any provocation.”
“It is worthy of note that, after the shooting of one Agyemang at Obuasi a few days ago, the “OV” killed another civilian, Charles, at Sefwi-Ankrah in the Western region on Tuesday, 08/08/2017, but are yet to make any public statements on the latter.”
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By: Neil Nii Amatey Kanarku/citifmonline.com/Ghana