The National Youth Organizer for Conventions Peoples Party (CPP) Osei Kofi Acquah has said the government should continue to burn excavators being used and seized for illegal mining popularly known as galamsey.

According to him, burning the excavators is the best way to reduce illegal mining activities, since other approaches have failed to end the menace.

The Ghana Armed Forces on Friday deployed 400 soldiers of all ranks to begin the second phase of ‘Operation Halt’ to rid the country’s water bodies of illegal miners.

The operation is aimed at removing all persons and logistics involved in mining on the water bodies.

In a statement signed and issued by Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah in Accra on Friday, said the second phase of the exercise would focus on the tributaries of Pra River, which were significantly affected by the activities of illegal miners.

The military, the statement said, had also begun armed patrols of the Pra River itself and advised the public to stay away from mining in rivers, in order to avoid any action from the soldiers.

GAF also deployed 200 soldiers to get rid of persons and mining logistics on water bodies

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Wednesday, April 28 authorized the Ghana Armed Forces to commence an operation to remove all persons and logistics involved in mining from Ghana’s water bodies.

Read the full statement of Osei Kofi Acquah below:

Osei Kofi Acquah the National Youth Organizer for the CPP writes

*LET THOSE ILLEGAL OPERATING EXCAVATORS BURN!*

I have seen videos of burning excavators and the crying and rants of people who these excavators belongs to.

The question I asked myself is did they heard it when the president through the minister declared operation Halt!?

Have they in their right sense taken a good look at how our lands and river bodies been destroyed?

The rivers I used to fish in have lost all the fishes, and the reason is Galamsey!

The lands that I harvested cocoa pods from, are now a desert, and the reason is Galamsey!

Some neighbors in a village I regular as a visitor and a friend have no water to drink, and some dug holes have swallow some of their young ones because of Galamsey!

I can count the number of times, it has rained in the month of April and May, because of Galamsey!

Our forest belts are becoming a desert, afforestation which makes an African country unique is now being replaced with deafforestation!

There is an estimation that very soon we may have to import water to drink. Yes you heard right!

In a poverty stricken country like Ghana, where people cannot even have access to portable water even during rainfall, we will be importing water very soon because of Galamsey!

The point is, how many Ghanaians out of the 30 million people know how a gold looks like?

How much do we have in our gold reserve as a country, that is destroying our lands and water bodies because we are searching for gold!?

If we are ravaging our lands and water bodies and we have actually succeeded in doing so, then how come we are still borrowing as a country and relying on aides to pay government workers and to support our budget?

The bitter truth is that, if we don’t BITE hard these perpetrators, we will loose everything and get nothing in return!

Not in the long term and in the short term.

In most of the videos I have seen the owners of those burnt excavators cry and others lament.

They are not crying because they have destroyed our lands and water bodies, but they are crying because those tools that destroy our lands are being incapacitated.

I have heard others that those machines are worth, thousands and millions of dollars, yes they are, and so does chocolate making machines, so does shoe making machines, so does tomato paste making machines etc.

Now it looks like the minister in charge of Lands and Natural resources means business, because I have seen videos of some burning excavators purported to belong to the ruling party’s women’s organizer, to the minister I say Ayekoo! Well done!!

The best way to set examples in order to be taken serious is to deal with the deviants in our own home.

This battle is a worthy one and every youth, every future leader must support it.

If this people says that they want to contribute to the economy of our dear country, if they say they want to create employment, if indeed they mean well, then let them build factories with their millions of dollars instead of buying land degrading machines that destroys our future!

To the president and the minister, the greedy and the selfish ones today will and may not appreciate you today, but the future generations will.

Now a question to the Galamseyors, of all the gold, diamonds etc that you have mined, when have you treated yourself to a ball of gold with okro or a soup?

How about a plate of gold with fried or grilled chicken!?

My point is, irrespective of how rich we become through mining, we will eat edible foods, meat, fishes and drink good and clean water, yet we are destroying the lands that will grow those edible foods, destroying the water bodies which are the habitats of the millions of fishes and making our water bodies undrinkable.

This fight is matching state power against few individuals who think that they are powerful, brave, strong and important than the rest of us.

It is operation Halt or burn! The choice is yours.

Ghana Today