Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen, presidential candidate of the Alliance for Revolutionary Change, has said existing punishments spelt by the laws for perpetrators of illegal mining are not deterring enough.
He says Ghana needs a legislation that will be so deterrent to wipe out people’s appetite to indulge in the act also known as ‘galamsey’.
For this reason, Alan Kyerematen says he will institute a life imprisonment for illegal miners if he becomes President.
Mr. Kyerematen, delivering an address at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) encounter in Accra Tuesday, October 01, 2024, espoused the need to proffer harsher punishment to safeguard Ghana’s environment.
He explained that sentencing people for 10-year prison terms is not deterring enough compared to the sums people make from galamsey, adding that such persons could complete their incarceration and return to continue their illegal mining acts.
The former Trade and Industry Minister indicated that his life imprisonment proposal would be deterring enough to curb the menace compared to the status quo.
Alan Kyerematen also shared his vision for restoring the environment through the introduction of a state-of-the-art technology to clean the polluted water bodies and depleted forest reserves.
This, he said, is the only way the nation’s natural resources could be protected for the benefit of future generations.
He also said the initiative will bridge economic development and environmental development since since sustainable resource management would be prioritised by the government.
“Impose a complete ban for one year on small-scale, community mining, whether legal or illegal, within one year we can clean all our river bodies…The introduction of new legislation and regulations will impose a complete ban on any form of mining in river bodies and forest reserves, with associated sanction regimes including life imprisonment for the violation of these new laws.”
“Ghanaians, 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, the amount of money that they may be getting from galamsey, it will not be enough deterrent, they will go in 10 years, come back and continue.”
“So we have to be serious about how we deal with galamsey,” he stated.
The founder of the Movement for Change asked Ghanaians to support his vision for a cleaner and safer environment, emphasising that tackling galamsey is a crucial step towards achieving sustainable growth and development for the nation.
