{"id":96033,"date":"2025-09-27T10:55:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T10:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=96033"},"modified":"2025-09-27T10:55:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T10:55:04","slug":"weak-judicial-system-undermining-galamsey-fight-kwadwo-poku","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=96033","title":{"rendered":"Weak judicial system undermining galamsey fight \u2013 Kwadwo Poku"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A communicator for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Executive Director of the Institute for Energy Policies and Research, Kwadwo Nsafoah Poku, has attributed Ghana\u2019s continued struggle in the fight against illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, to a weak judicial system.<\/p>\n

Speaking on JoyNews\u2019 Newsfile on Saturday, September 27, Mr Poku said the inability to effectively punish offenders has rendered arrests meaningless and emboldened illegal miners.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest problem underneath all these things is weak judicial infrastructure. A weak judicial system makes it difficult for offenders to be punished. We\u2019ve had reports of 1,500 people being arrested. Where are they? In the mining communities, they don\u2019t care. You arrest them today, they get bail tomorrow, and the following day they go back to work. So arrest is an ordinary thing,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Mr Poku proposed legal reforms to hold landowners and excavator owners accountable, stressing that this could significantly reduce illegal mining.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have proposed two things that I think will clearly reduce galamsey drastically. Bring out a law that incriminates the owner of the land that is used for galamsey. Bring out a law that incriminates the owner of an excavator,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

He noted that while small-scale mining has existed for over a century, the introduction of heavy machinery has intensified environmental destruction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe aggravated problems we see today are largely because of mechanised mining with huge excavators. If the rich guy who has money to buy an excavator is criminalised, it will make a difference,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Mr Mroku further argued that landowners are often complicit in galamsey operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou and I cannot just enter someone\u2019s farm and start farming without permission. So how can people enter a land and begin excavating without the owner knowing? The owners of the land are complicit. The owners of the excavators are complicit,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n

He also pointed to partisan politics as another major obstacle to the fight against galamsey, accusing both the NPP and NDC of undermining each other\u2019s efforts for political gain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fundamental problem of this galamsey fight is the NPP and NDC. When one party said, \u2018I will put my presidency on it,\u2019 the other did the opposite. And today, after nine months in power, nothing has been done,\u201d Mr Poku said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"WeakThe Executive Director of the Institute for Energy Policies and Research, Kwadwo Nsafoah Poku, has said that Ghana\u2019s fight against illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, continues to fail largely because of a weak judicial system.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[196,2120,1883,117,10,9,1887,9385],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galamsey","category-kwadwo-poku","category-national","category-news","category-politics","category-popular","category-top-story","category-weak-judical-system"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}