By Benjamin A. Commey
Accra, Oct. 02, GNA – Mr John Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, an Independent Presidential Candidate, says under his presidency, illegal miners would receive a more deterring punishment such as life sentences.
Mr Kyerematen made the promise when he took his turn at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) evening encounter, in Accra, on Tuesday.
Outlining what he said was his 10-point plan of the Great Transformation Plan (GTP), to tackle the menace, Mr Kyerematen proposed a harsher punishment for perpetrators, indicating that the current mode of punishment was not deterrent enough.
He said, under his administration, new legislation and regulations would be enacted to completely ban any form of mining in river bodies and forest reserves.
He said the legislation would be accompanied by hefty sanction regimes, including life imprisonment for the violation, to serve as deterrent.
‘You need to get to the point where when you punish them, they will feel the impact of the punishment. If it is just a question of 10 years in jail is not enough deterrent, they will go in for 10 years, come back and continue. So, we must be serious about how we deal with galamsey,” he said.
Mr Kyerematen promised the restoration of all water bodies through the use of state-of-the-art technology, to reduce the level of turbidity.
“We have technologies globally that can bring our waters and our rivers to the level pre-dating the introduction of galamsey, within one year, we can clean our river bodies. It is just through technologies, but you need to put a ban for at least one year,” he stressed.
On restoration of the lost forest, Mr Kyerematen promised to embark on the regeneration of all degraded land sites in mining communities through reforestation.
This, he indicated, would offer the youth who were currently engaged in illegal mining a “livelihood employment opportunities.”
Mr Kyerematen, however, opposed the burning of seized excavators from illegal miners, describing such an act as “not making sense.”
Rather, he said, under his administration, such machinery and equipment that were currently being used in small-scale and community mining, would be demobilised under the supervision of the military.
“If you want to demobilise an equipment you need to do three things – put them under inventory, properly stored and you have to make sure you preserve them,” he said.
The former Trade Minister said his administration would create youth-owned mining companies, support them to acquire the necessary machinery and equipment to enable them to mine responsibly and sustainably.
“These companies will be provided with seed capital by the government to acquire the kind of machinery and equipment to mine in a responsible manner,” he indicated.
GNA