Ghanaian politician, Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby has emphasized the need for the government and its anti-galamsey forces to prioritize honesty in their fight against illegal mining.

He urged the government to direct their efforts towards apprehending the key players involved in the illegal mining operations, rather than solely focusing on the small-scale participants.

As the former chief executive officer of the Volta River Authority, Dr. Wereko-Brobby attributed the persistence of illegal mining to political patronage.

In Dr Wereko-Brobby’s view, the “fight against galamsey must be fought in a very honest way”.

“For example, a few weeks ago, when Prof Frimpong-Boateng’s report became open and he had mentioned certain characters in that report, etc., one of my biggest disappointments was the fact that I heard one of the leading media stations in the fight against galamsey, spend a whole morning show trying to defend the actions of one of the people who had been fingered as being responsible for the damage to our lands”, he noted.

“So, the question I asked myself is: ‘What does the fight against galamsey mean when people’s interests are touched – whether it’s overtly or covertly?’”

“For me, holding the government to account to respect the laws of the country has to be paramount”, Dr Wereko-Brobby noted, adding: “So, we should, as a country, not be focused on arresting the young men who are down doing the illegal mining”.

Instead, he said, the attention should be on the big sponsors of the canker.

“But I’ve never actually heard the fight of galamsey looking for or pushing for or taking any action against the kingpins who finance galamsey”, he said.

“Aisha Huang; we made a lot of noise, what’s happened to Aisha Huang?” he asked.

He said the laws of Ghana are clear-cut that small-scale mining is reserved for Ghanaians, “so who are the Ghanaians who get the licences and invite the Chinese to front for them?”

“Who are the Ghanaians who can afford USD50,000 excavators to support the operations of these people in the pit?” he asked.

“If we are really serious about fighting galamsey, we really ought to go hard against the local kingpins who are fronting and finance the effort”, he said.