I couldn’t believe my ears when I chanced upon the comment made by President Akufo-Addo at the sword cutting ceremony of the Law Village Project, basically endorsing the act of lawlessness by armed military officers leading the operation halt galamsey in the forest zones.

This justification by a sitting President who claim to be a lawyer is not only outrageous but criminal.

Listen, section 99 of the Minerals and Mining (Amended) Act, 2019 provides enough penalties to offences perpetuated by these illegal miners and one would expect the President who has touted much about due process whenever he is questioned about why some appointees of the erstwhile Mahama administration tagged as criminals are walking freely, will uphold the rule of law in the fight against illegal mining.

Why did the Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Wood designate some fourteen (14) courts to deal with mining related offences in 2017?

Why?

To say the least, this is an act of an intoxicated, power drunk and excess use of executive supremacy in a constitutional rule.
President Akufo-Addo’s speech is a demonstration of gross disregard of law.

It undermines Ghana’s democratic credentials and it’s a retrogressive lawless approach to solving societal problems.

When the Minister of Land and Natural Resources sort to justice the act early on, I intimated that as a childish response to a national canker, but hearing the President address the issue this manner and throwing a challenge to victims of the lawless act by the taskforce makes me worry of the future of our young democracy.

In other words, the President says, let the burning of excavators continue unabated, SMH.

You demobilize their materials (excavators), refuse to arrest and prosecute the criminals, condemn them publicly but negotiate to pay some of them secretly.

Will you go to court?

ProsecuteThem

StopTheLawlessness

StopGalamseyNow

Kofi Asante Mensah
A Restless Citizen & Member, Media Coalition Against Galamsey
0244690262