A Private legal practitioner, Osman Alhassan, has asked President Akufo-Addo to heed the calls of Organized Labour and declare a state of emergency on the prevailing illegal mining menace.
This comes as Organized Labour, a workforce comprising of over seven hundred thousand Ghanaians, threatened to embark on a nationwide, indefinite strike from October 10 over the devasting effects of illegal mining, also called galamsey, on Ghana's environment and water bodies In an interview with 3FM's Beatrice Adu on the Midday News, Lawyer Alhassan explained that the laws regarding illegal mining are in place to preserve the country's water bodies and prevent the endangering lives of the citizenry.
According to him, the state is the first enforcer of these laws, and security personnel can be deployed to ensure compliance. "This problem can actually be dealt swiftly without the need of any declaration of the state of emergency if the President and the executives so wish to deal with it because everything will end up in the deployment of security personnel to enforce whatever steps or laws that have been passed," he said on October 2.
While the lawyer believes that the galamsey issue can be tackled through law enforcement, he suggested that the President should consider declaring a state of emergency in areas most affected by the illegal activities. "He should go ahead and declare the state of emergency in the places where the danger is occurring." he advised.