Former PNC General Secretary, Atik Mohammed has advised that the fight against illegal mining, popularly called galamsey, shouldn't be a nine-day wonder.
He called on the Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Samuel Abu Jinapor and the Government of Ghana to sustain the fight.
President Nana Akufo-Addo has deployed 200 soldiers to remove all persons engaged in mining in waterbodies in Ghana.
The operation began on River Pra in the Central and Western Regions.
The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah revealed this in a press statement issued on Wednesday, reading, "in furtherance of the resolutions of the final communique, of the Stakeholder Dialogue on Small Scale Mining on April 14 -15, 2021 and to ensure that mining within water bodies is immediately stopped; the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has authorized the Ghana Armed Forces, to commence an operation, to remove all persons and logistics involved in mining from Ghana’s water bodies.
"The operation commenced at 0600 hours on Wednesday, April 28th, 2021 on the River Pra in the Central and Western Regions of Ghana. Two Hundred (200) officers of the Ghana Armed Forces are involved in the operation."
Atik Mohammed, making submissions on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', asked the government not to relinquish the fight after a few years.
He noted that should the government relax its measures to end the menace, the illegal miners will return to their fields and continue their illegal mining operations.
"If we can sustain what is going on now, give me two years; if we can continue it like we're doing now, I'm sure, in two years, we should be able to get our country to where it ought to be. But if we take knee-jerk actions and after two years, we go back to sleep, trust me; the Chinese will return. The local galamseyers will return and we would have wasted resources for no results," he stated.
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