Home Of Ghana News Ghana News, Entertainment And More
A Ghanaian-USA based mining consultant, Dr. Solomon Owusu has criticized the Deputy Interior Minister, Ebenezer Okletey Terlarbi for defending the Interior Minister’s comment regarding the repatriation of foreign galamsey operators.
According to the Deputy Interior Minister, there are several challenges leading to the government’s decision to deport galamsey foreigners, including identity verification issues, judicial frustrations, lack of vehicles to transport foreign criminals to court, feeding problems and overcrowded prisons. However, Dr. Owusu described the minister’s excuses as childish, unreasonable and illogical.
Dr. Owusu suggested that fingerprints, names and facial verifications can be used to identify foreign nationals without passports, leveraging the immigration system.
Concerning the judicial frustrations, he questioned why the government hasn’t fixed the broken court system, which is also used to prosecute Ghanaian illegal miners. He argued that if the government believes that the current court system cannot be used to prosecute foreign criminals, then it isn’t fit to prosecute local criminals as well.
On the transportation challenges, Dr. Owusu asked why the same vehicles used to transport Ghanaian illegal miners to court cannot be used for foreign criminals.
Touching on the feeding issue, he ridiculed the idea that special food is needed for foreign prisoners, citing that Ghanaian prisoners in China and other foreign countries don’t receive special feeding treatment. “In China, do they prepare special fufu and abɛnkwan for Ghanaian prisoners?”, he questioned.
Dr. Owusu argued that if the prisons are overcrowded, the solution isn’t to exempt foreign galamsey operators from punishment but to reform the prison system across the country. He insisted that if the government knows that Ghana prisons are overfilled, then no Ghanaian should be jailed until the prisons are fixed.
Dr. Owusu has pleaded to President John Dramani Mahama to take decisive action on addressing the galamsey issue, adding that without stiffer punishment for foreign galamsey operators, the fight against illegal mining will be ineffective and meaningless without resulting in any better outcome.
The mining expert mentioned that galamsey issues contributed immensely to the President’s victory in 2024 and hence, any mismanagement of such an issue of national concern can potentially harm the NDC’s prospects in 2028.
