The amended mining law of Ghana has stipulated a minimum of 15 years and maximum of 25 years for illegal miners (galamseyers), President Nana Akufo-Addo has said.
At the second meeting of the Council of State at the Jubilee House for this year, President Akufo-Addo said: “We are talking about minimum sentences of 15 years, maximum 25) years”.
“We have also increased the punishment for foreigners who intervene illegally in this industry”, he told the Council, adding: “We have had to take away some of the discretion of the judges largely because with the greatest of respect, they are not cooperating on these matters”.
Explaining why the discretion of the judges have been reduced with regard to galamsey offences, the president said: “People are caught, fragrant act, they are taken to court, granted bail, and at the end of the day they disappear”.
“We thought it was important to take away the discretion from the judges”, he noted, adding: “It is unfortunate that that should be so because all of us should be able to trust the judges also to do their bid in stamping out crime in our society; that hasn’t turned out to be the case. So, this is another step that we have taken against this fight against galamsey”.
Prior to the amendment, Ghanaian offenders faced a maximum jail term of five years.
Aside from the amended jail terms, convicts risk a minimum fine of 150,000 penalty units.
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Maximum of 25 years in jail for galamsayers is good. What about PDS and other corrupt practices with supporting evidence, including double salary ***barred word***. Someone stole a chicken and went to jail for 5 years, yet there are supper corrupt politicians walking freely. Christian council is quite, our chiefs did not say shiit. Everything in ghana is upside down. I think it would be better to have a JSS graduate with few years experience in life to govern the country.
Nana is working for the white man. You claim you are fighting galamsey but you are rather fighting against the youth of this country who deserve the gold more than the white man you've been using our resources and military to protect. You've been fighting galamsey for 3 years and yet our rivers are dirtier than ever before.
Mr president, how many years will the white man get for having the audaciti to mine our gold for free? The tax exemptions you have given Anglogold is bigger than our national budget. Mr president, why do you hate everything that can help the Ghanaian to ever come poverty? Why do you obey everything the white man says?? Don't you know you have a responsibility to take care of the sons and daughters of this country before you give license to any other foreigner to mine our precious metals?
15 to 25 years in jail for Galamsay, very good. But how many years are the double salary takers going to get?