Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa says the renewed fight to arrest the galamsey menace will not be successful if the main kingpins are not arrested.

According to him, burning the excavators will yield no results unless "one galamsey overlord, one real architect, an actual financier is arrested and prosecuted".

The government as part of its efforts to curb illegal mining popularly known as 'galamsey' has ordered a team of military officers in an operation dubbed 'Operation Halt' to burn galamsey equipment on the spot.

So far, over 200 excavators have been burnt.

This act has, however, been condemned with some describing it as illegal.

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa speaking on the back of an article he has written on the galamsey fight, told Kwami Sefa Kayi that, "the modus operandi being used currently is the same so why are we doing the same thing and expecting different results?".

"How come not even one architect behind this galamsey operation has been arrested? To start a galamsey operation, you need millions of Ghana cedis and so the real perpetrators are not those small boys or the youth who are risking their lives," he said on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo'.

He suggested that, "instead of arresting these guys, we should make them an offer for them to lead us to the real kingpins; if we follow the chain, it will lead us to the barons. Unless we get the real perpetrators, we will always come back to square one."

Listen to the Former Deputy Minister for Education in the video below

Below is the full write-up

It strikes me as really strange that in this entire galamsey fight we have not had one galamsey overlord, one real architect, an actual financier arrested and prosecuted. Isn't that where the fight should have started from?

We all know from the kind of sophisticated equipment at play that only a few moneybags can initiate a galamsey operation.

Instead of hurriedly burning excavators, shouldn't we pay attention to their unique chassis numbers and readily available technology to track the real McCoys who imported or purchased them? It's definitely not difficult to follow the ownership trail.

Is it not time to put out a handsome amount of money as a reward for anyone with information leading to the arrest of the “big men/women” behind the destructively criminal galamsey gang? Remember, those cloaked with authority over intelligence gathering say they do not know the real henchmen.

Also, in exchange for their freedom, shouldn't we get the small flies we arrest at the galamsey pits to lead us to their real bosses? How many of them wouldn't find this offer irresistible?

Where is EOCO to long begin following the proceeds of this organized crime by lawfully freezing bank accounts and identifying assets of suspected bigwigs linked to galamsey as we take sincere steps to smoke out the shadowy perpetrators-in-chief?

Finally, can all political parties in Ghana publicly declare a zero-tolerance policy for party financing from galamsey overlords at all levels? This ought to be strictly enforced with appropriate sanctions.

I am just thinking aloud on how the latest round of galamsey fight wouldn't end up as a farce like all the others.

Only fearless truth and unquestionable integrity can be our saving grace. God help the Republic.

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa

[MP, North Tongu]

Former Deputy Minister for Education]