Galamsey: Gold seized from illegal miners gone missing
- Ounces of gold seized by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on illegal mining cannot be accounted for
- Over 200 excavators have also gone mission from the 500 seized by the Committee
- An NPP official has been arrested for his role in what has become the excavator saga
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Several ounces of of gold seized from illegal miners by the Inter-Ministerial Committee fighting the galamsey menace in the country have gone missing.
According to the President of the Concerned Small Scale Miners, Michael Kwadwo Peprah, all the ounces of gold seized between 2018 and 2019 have vanished and officialdom cannot account for it.
“You have seized people’s excavators and those excavators cannot be found. They have seized people’s gold because they thought they were engaging in galamsey and that gold cannot be found and at the end of the day, we are back to the same problem,” he told Citi News in an interview.
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Mr. Kwadwo Peprah’s revelation comes on the back of the arrest of former NPP Central Region Vice Chairman, Horace Ekow Ewusi and five accomplices for their involvement in the 500 missing excavators.
Michael Kwadwo Peprah further stated that the campaign and fight against illegal mining was only an avenue for people to enrich themselves.
“If we are able to seize over 500 excavators, then imagine the number of gold that will be seized alongside the excavators…,” he added.
Meanwhile, the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) General Secretary, John Boadu has also hinted government will dissolve the the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining.
The Concerned Small Scale Miners believe the dissolution of the Committee is long over due.
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“We said it over again that using the military to fight the problem is not the solution and the government did not adhere to what we were trying to say. Now that at least we have had evidence from all that we were saying, it is a lesson to them. And it is a lesson to the subsequent government. The problem is a very complex one and if you do not understand the problem, that is when you make mistakes like what we have done,” they noted.
YEN.com.gh earlier reported that the Country Director of World Bank, Pierre Frank Laporte has expressed worry at the rate at which the government of Ghana is borrowing to stay afloat.
He said the country risks being classified as a high debt distress country if the situation of excessive borrowing is not curbed.
Laporte's genuine concern comes a day after the government successfully raised US$3 billion Eurobond which was five times oversubscribed.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
