A Tarkwa Circuit Court judge, Hathia Ama Manu, has sentenced two Nigerians to 20-year prison terms for engaging in illegal mining, commonly known as galamsey.
The terms will run concurrently.
The convicts, Ayodele Jackson and Benjamin Obin were arrested at Bepoase, near Prestea in the Western Region.
The two men who were sentenced on October 7, pleaded guilty to the charges with the explanation that they were unemployed and hungry, and had only resorted to the galamsey work as a means of surviving.
They told the court that they had only been indulging in the act for about three weeks before their arrest. They were thus convicted on their own plea.
Laying out the fact of the case, the Prosecutor, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Juliana Dadzie told the court that a complaint was made against the accused by two officers of the Minerals Commission.
According to her, the two Minerals Commission staff, Emmanuel Morrison and Bismark Mansoh, on a routine patrol in the Prestea area, spotted the accused, with about fifteen others engaging in illegal mining activities with two excavators, a washing plant and a water pumping machine at Bepoase.
Upon seeing the two officers, the miners fled, but the officers managed to apprehend the two expatriates.
They were then handed over to the Police, with the pumping machine and one excavator control board.
The court presided over by judge Hathia Ama Manu described the circumstance under which they had entered into the illegal business as “unfortunate”, but stated that, “the country is at a point where our water bodies, especially those of us in the Western Region, have been destroyed due to illegal mining.”
The Court thus said that the accused had no excuses to justify destroying the environment.
They were sentenced due to the severity of their offence.
The Court ordered that after serving their sentences, the two men be deported to Nigeria.
The court also ordered that the excavator, with its control board and the water pumping machine be confiscated to the state. They will be handed over to the Minerals Commission.
Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline/[email protected]
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...strange and disappointing...how many Ghanaians are into galamsey compared to the foreigners (I am not saying the foreigners should be spared) but doing the right thing with no biasing will do good for the country. No foreigner can come to Ghana and starter doing galamsey without a Ghanaian involvement; the judges, lawyers, police etc, have they forgotten about their own terms like 'aiding and abetting" etc...
IS ABOUT TIME WE ARE SERIOUS WITH THESE DESTROYING GHANA ENVIRONMENT TO ENSURE OTHERS STAY AWAY. AGAIN, WE SHOULD FIND OUT HOW THEY ENTER GHANA AND GHANA IMMIGRATION IS SO ***barred word*** IS NOT EVEN FUNNY THE BRIBE TAKERS. BOKO HARAM WILL BOOM THEM ONE DAY IF THEY CONTINUE COLLECTING BRIBE.
I'm disappointed in this skewed ruling. This is the first galamsey conviction I have come across, yet thousands of Ghanaians have been left off the hook. Pure bias.
Hahahaaaa, the Nigerians are low hanging fruits very easy to reach. The real galamsey kingpins are too visible to see. Why can't government use the military helicopters to comb the forest areas at least 3 times a week. From above they will be able to see all that is happening. If you pretend to be fighting galamsey, the involved will also pretend as if they have stopped. Out of the 16 regions galamsey is more serious in four, i.e. Western, Ashanti, Eastern and Western north. If a whole government can't stop this menace in 4 out of the 16, imagine what it would have been like if all 16 were involved. Leadership failure is Ghana's bane. The country's so called politicians are experts in riding V8's, foreign travels, exgratia, 10-15% down payment for contracts , allowances, loans in the name of the people but end up in a few people's handbags, grabbing fairly new state vehicles under the cover of auction, always adding promises when earlier promises remain unfulfilled.
It is we (black people) leading and fronting these criminal Chinese. Charity begins at home. We must deal with the back people more severely. Black people sold their fellow back people as slaves, and we did not learn from this painful history, and we are now fronting Chinese to destroy Ghana. Judge, well done. Punish black people (Ghanaian or Nigerians) severely to teach us more lessons. Given our history, we should better and stop this disgusting behaviour of defending black criminals.
Ghanaians and hatred for Nigerians. Chinese people doing galamsey easily for years and walking about freely. Black man is indeed still under mental slavery.
And the numerous Chinese Galamseyers are walking around freely.