Five persons from Burkina Faso have been sentenced to 100 years in prison for indulging in illegal mining in the Wa West district of the Upper West region. They are to share the term equally with each serving 20 years.
They were found guilty of violating section 23(1) of the Criminal Offences Act and section 99 of the Minerals and Mining Act as amended.
A police patrol team, after being notified of illegal mining activities in the area, arrested the five on March 23, 2024, at an illegal mining site at Maase in the Wa West district.
Upon spotting the police, the miners attempted to escape but were apprehended. A search at the site led to the recovery of three water-pumping machines and other mining implements.
The accused persons admitted in their caution statements to their counts, indicating that they used to engage in the act in Burkina Faso but had to cross the Black Volta River into Ghana due to the drought.
The court convicted the five foreigners on two counts: conspiracy to commit a crime (mining without a licence) and mining without a licence as a non-Ghanaian.
Principal State Attorney, Saeed Abdul Shakur, says the accused could not deny the charges because they were caught in the act, sending a signal to others that the cost for doing galamsey in Ghana as a foreigner is minimum prison term of 20 years.
“The police conducted a swoop at the black Volta close to Jamboso and arrested 5 persons, all of them were Burkinabé nationals. And they were actually mining close to the bank of the river, somewhere even mining inside the river. They were arrested and arranged for the circuit court and remanded to the presence of police custody.”
“They decided to plead guilty in simplicity, all the five pleaded guilty and asked the court to be lenient with them, so the court was actually lenient by sentencing them to 20 years imprisonment on both counts. In the mining act, the minimum you can give any foreigner doing illegal mining in Ghana is 20 years. They were caught actually in the act, they were inside the pit when they were arrested. Eventually, they couldn’t do anything,” he told Accra-based Citi News.
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