Lands Ministry to set up galamsey special courts

The Ministry for Lands and Natural Resources plans to set up three mining courts to assist the Judicial Service.

The courts will serve mining areas including Tarkwa, Dunkwa on Offin, Obuasi and Prestea.

The move is to deal swiftly with cases related to mining in these areas.

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu who announced this in Kumasi today [Monday], said the Ministry is also in talks with the Chief Justice to make punishment on galamsey punitive.

“One of the components of the MIP is to ensure legal and law enforcement, and so we have engagements with the Chief Justice and one of their requests is to help them establish more courts at the district level so the MDF has taken that responsibility and we are going to build a number of courts to assist the CJ in their daily activities. The district courts are normally to be built by the District Assembly, and so we are going to support them to make sure that these things are done.”

Problem of prosecution

The previous Commander of Operation Vanguard, Colonel William Agyapong had raised concerns with the prosecution of illegal miners arrested by the anti-galamsey task force.

According to him, the sentences were not deterrent enough and a major disincentive to the fight against illegal mining in the country.

“Government has done a lot, but we will need more.  The kind of sentences and fines that come out of the arrest are not helpful. We know that the onus is on the prosecution to prove somebody guilty, but if you know what we go through and after everything the sentencing and the fines are not so deterrent.”

“If you find somebody who is involved in small-scale illegal mining and you fine him GH¢1,000 or GH¢2,000, I think that it will not be deterrent enough. He will not see why he should not go back to the land. These are worrying issues that I hope that in due course, they are tackled by the appropriate authority,” he said.

It is expected that these courts will serve their purpose by effectively dealing with cases on galamsey.

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By: Marian Ansah/citinewsroom.com/Ghana

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