The government has made giant strides in the fight against galamsey after the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the Akufo-Addo administration launched a full-scale attack on the menace.
Spearheaded by the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu, his outfit has shut down several illegal mining concessions leaving destroyed machinery in their wake.
In a video intercepted by GhanaWeb however, a Lebanese national, Mr. Yahaya, claiming to be of Ghanaian descent, is seen and heard bragging to an undercover investigative journalist under the guise of a local concessioner that he has strong ties at the seat of government, and as a result, should be granted concessions in an area to mine.
Determined to be sure of how deep the Lebanese man’s connections are, he warned him of the activities of the Environmental Protection Agency in quelling undertakings of illegal miners in the country. But the Lebanese just shrugged and urged the ‘concessioner’ to simply give him the EPA boss’ number and everything would be alright.
“…for this one I don’t have any problem, you get me, nobody can touch me…. Just give me the boss’ number and don’t worry... I will let them come to the flag house (Jubilee House). As for connections, I have… I have very good connections, nobody can disturb me,” he stressed rather confidently.
Mr. Yahaya further noted that he was in partnership with Aisha Huang, an alleged suspect who was earlier accused of being the leader of some Chinese galamseyers in the country.
The Lebanese national also hinted that the boss of the Operation Vanguard, a taskforce set up to enforce government's campaign against illegal mining activities in the country, was his friend and as a result would be able to gain his permission to carry out his galamsey activities.
Having liaised with the chiefs and other traditional leaders in the various galamsey flashpoints, government has been able to minimize drastically, the activities of illegal miners, or so it seems.
Although the fight against the menace is not entirely over, government appears to have given a major blow to the illegal miners following an indefinite ban on all small-scale mining activities across the country.
With this recent development however, many will begin to doubt that whether the fight against the galamsey menace will be won at all.
