Chief of Offins, Nana Dwamena-Akenten II has cautioned the Minerals Commission to desist from granting permits to miners to prospect and mine gold from Ghana’s forest reserves.
This was a declaration Nana Dwamena-Akenten II made to reaffirm their opposition to any mining activity in the area in light of the devastation it has caused in the various communities in the country.
During the Green Ghana Day Friday, June 07, 2024, the Offinsohene told journalists after planting his tree that “our decision remains unchanged.”
He says illegal mining, otherwise known as ‘galamsey’, has caused massive destruction in many places at the behest of the Minerals Commission.
“Unless I am beheaded, there will not be any galamsey here. The Minerals Commission should look at the available forests and not grant application to anyone to come and mine. They sit there [in Accra] and take their monies and send the people to come and tempt us. But we will also never allow that. So we all have to come together including the Minerals Commission to stop ‘galamsey’ from happening.
“You sit in Accra and issue permits to people to come and do galamsey here if we the chiefs allow them. Don’t you know that the lands are being destroyed? So it is the Minerals Commission that is destroying the lands and not the chiefs because they grant the permit. So we are resolute that there will never be galamsey in Offinso,” he poured his heart out.
“We do not want any explanation from the mineral commission because our lands are not for mining activities. Posterity also has a natural right to the environment and the minerals. Just as we have inherited these from our forebears, the least we could do is to leave them in its current state, if not better,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Offinso General Manager of the Ghana forestry commission Edward Nyaama, on his part said despite the numerous awareness creation exercises by the Forestry Commission on bush fires preventive mechanism on the part of communities who are into cultivation of food crops, there appears to be no appreciation of the efforts of the organizations in question by beneficiary communities in trying to accomplish the goal of nature conservation.
He said all depleted forests in the Offinso enclave are as a result of bush fires and therefore asked residents to desist from such acts.
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