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Kwesi Pratt has charged the security agencies in the country to assist the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, to curb galamsey activities in the country.

The Minister, during a two-day National Consultative Dialogue on Small Scale Mining, cautioned against illegal mining stressing sanctions and penalties imposed by the Minerals and Mining (Amendment) Act, 2019 (Act 995) should be applied to all those who infringed the law, irrespective of political colour, socio-economic status or class.

In a communiqué, Abu Jinapor charged all political parties, stakeholder groups and individuals to join “the development and execution of this national, not parochial, agenda to rid ourselves of the long-standing issue of illegal small-scale mining and the need to implement measures to eradicate it from our society”.

Also, on a working visit to the Western Region, the Minister pledged; “I will stop the illegalities without fear or favour. No matter which political party is involved.”

“What we need now is a broad based national effort that would have our noble chiefs and community elders in a non-partisan dialogue to ensure that the country’s resources are exploited in a safe and regulated manner to the advantage of the people,” he added.

Speaking on Peace FM’s “Kokrokoo” programme, Kwesi Pratt noted that the Minister will need the full support of the security agencies to execute his duties with regard to combatting galamsey.

He called on the intelligence services saying “intelligence is crucial for fighting against galamsey. If the Intelligence Services don’t help, whatever he (the Minister) does will be to no avail’’.