‘Galamsey assault’: Investigate and punish ‘the rogue soldiers’

Wikipedia says, ‘a rogue’ is a dishonest or unprincipled person.

Synonyms for ‘rogue’ include; rascal, wretch, son of a bitch, vagabond, scoundrel, crook, miscreant, imp, rat and dog.

Webster’s Dictionary also defines ‘assault’ as; “make physical attack on.”  Synonyms for ‘assault’ include; beat, cane, hit, punch, pummel, pound, wallop, rough up, whip, smack, thrash, abuse and molest.

Some military officers are alleged to have ‘brutally assaulted’ members of a task force set up by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, to check activities of ‘galamseyers’ at Enchi and Asankragwa in the Western Region of the country.

Reportedly, the ‘unspeakable assault’ inflicted on the task force by the ‘rogue soldiers’ was recorded on Wednesday, January 19, 2022 at Asankragwa.

According to Ghanaweb, a lady who identified herself as Mabel Hammond , working at the Office of the President, told ‘the assaulting soldiers’  that the task force was “commissioned” by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to apprehend illegal miners, ‘on or near water bodies’ and hand them over to the police.

Media reports indicate that while the ‘rogue soldiers’ were supposedly ‘interrogating’ members of the task force, they were as well, assaulting and brutalising them in the process.

Ghanaweb says, while the so-called interrogation was on-going, sounds of whipping and commanding shouts such as, “heads-up”, “heads-up”, “heads-up”, were heard in the background.

Reportedly, ‘the rogue soldiers’ ‘arrested’ members of the task force at Wassa Akropong and after brutalising them, transported them all the way from the Western North Region to the Obuasi Central Police Station in the Central Region.

What the soldiers themselves were doing in the galamsey enclaves at  that material time , is yet to be established , but a statement issued by the Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr George Mireku Duker, has confirmed the appointment of the task force by the Ministry.

The statement said the task force was dispatched to Enchi upon information that some galamseyers were busy at work in the Enchi area.

According to the statement, while reporting back to Accra after their assignment in the region, the task force identified an illegal mining site along the Manso-Amenfi road and so they effected the arrest of two persons.

“The Deputy Minister in-charge of Mining was duly informed and they were advised to contact the District Chief Executive for the conveyance of the two excavators from the site to the Amenfi Central District Assembly”, the statement added.

The statement further said:”A Chinese national and a Ghanaian were arrested during the operation and handed over to the Manso-Amenfi police.

“On their way back to Accra after the arrest, some military personnel accosted them around Wassa Akropong and purportedly brutalised the team and took them to the Obuasi Central Police Station.”

Readers, do you remember Operation Vanguard? It was a military-cum police joint task force set up by President Akufo-Addo in 2017 to combat the activities of galamseyers in the country.

And who are the galamseyers? They are illegal miners spread across the country, depleting Ghana’s forest cover and destroying the nation’s precious water bodies with impunity.

As a matter of fact, many Ghanaians lauded the initial efforts of members of Operation Vanguard in checking the activities of the galamseyers. The job at hand was, no doubt , a Herculean one.

Some critics, however, say “one of the principal reasons Operation Vanguard failed ‘woefully’ was the indisputable fact that some of its members ‘balooned’ in the pockets of the illegal miners.”

The critics contend that:”Instead of defending the ‘bigger’ national interest, some of the members of Operation Vanguard were rather ‘arresting’ the gold they seized from the illegal miners and ‘detaining’ such gold in their own bags and haversacks.”

Such critics are still contending that the soldiers who assaulted the civilian task force recently set up by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, may be the direct ‘professional cousins’ of the soldiers who ‘derailed’ the ‘fire-power’ of the ‘original Operation Vanguard’.

They ask:”What was the ‘motivation’ of the soldiers in their assault on members of the civilian task force, instead of collaborating with them?

“Was it the case that the soldiers had been compromised by the illegal miners who were arrested by the task force?

“In any case, is ‘brutal assault’ the only ‘tool’ to ‘elicit’ information from ‘suspects’? “

Indeed, well-meaning Ghanaians are calling for ‘quick’ and ‘proper’ investigation into the ‘nauseating’ assault on the task force set up by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.

They are of the view that the soldiers involved in the assault, must be identified and quickly investigated by the state and if found culpable, be severely dealt with according to the law.

They insist that the outcome of the investigation must be published and given wide publicity, instead of keeping it on the shelves.

Really, some Ghanaians strongly believe that the national galamsey-war will be won if there is effective collaboration between ‘carefully selected security human capital’ and the civilian population.

They assert that the state security agencies alone cannot win ‘the galamsey-war’ ,  insisting that” disciplined, loyal, dedicated, patriotic and nationalistic state security officers ought to be identified and selected to collaborate with carefully selected civilians to win ‘the galamsey-war’.

So, over to you; the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces and your surbodinates.

Contact email/ WhatsApp of the author:

asmahfrankg@gmail.com (0505556179)

By G. Frank Asamah