Local authorities such as chiefs, District Chief Executives and law enforcement agencies especially the police should be held liable for the surge in illegal mining (galamsey), the Co-chair of the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative GHEITI), Dr Steve Manteaw, has said.
He explained that the country's criminal code enjoined citizens especially these local authorities to report or arrest people who commit crime and that their failure to do anything about galamsey smacks of complicity. • Dr Steve Manteaw (inset) addressing participants in the conference Dr Manteaw was speaking in an interview with journalists on the sidelines of a three-day dissemination workshop on the 2021/2022 GHEITI reports for the mining and Oil/Gas sectors at Sunyani in the Bono Region yesterday.
He also appealed to the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, to lend his support and pledge not to intervene when politically exposed persons are arrested.
This, he noted, would give state investigative bodies the liberty to do their work to deal with the menace. "If only the President who holds ultimate authority learns not to intervene when people behind galamsey are arrested, it would embolden investigative bodies to carry out their work without fear or favour. "I believe the President should remove himself from the political structure he belongs to and think along his legacy "because posterity would be the best judge when he leaves office," he said.