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‘Shoot them!’ – Deputy Speaker prescribes firing squad for illegal miners

Joe Osei Owusu believes the law is not dealing with illegal miners as rigorously as it should.

According to him, the law is not dealing with defaulters enough, insisting gunning them down will serve as a deterrent to others planning on engaging in illegal mining activities.

Speaking to Accra-based Starr FM, Osei Owusu said more rigorous punishments must be meted out to those who engage in galamsey operations.

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“The other time I said we should shoot people and people were not happy with that. [But] I still think that the way to deal with recalcitrant people is not to use the regular law system,” he said.

He added that many people within the society are not helping in the fight against galemsey.

According to him, some citizens will “hide the perpetrators in the afternoon and they go in the night to go and destroy the water bodies”.

Illegal mining has been one of the biggest challenges of Ghana in recent years, with the act leading to the destruction of many water bodies and lands.

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Last year, anti-galamsey task force, known as Operation Vanguard, was put together by government to help tackle the menace.

The task force has managed to arrest over 950 illegal miners but only a few were convicted after being sent to court.

This, the first Deputy Speaker believes will not help the fight against galamsey unless more serious charges are dished out to defaulters.

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